The growing role of service #SIINDA

Last week, the Mono Team joined the SIINDA Media Tech Conference in Valencia. In this blog post, we've gathered some valuable takeaways for our industry.

We were happy to see so many familiar faces at the conference and if you were there, we hope you dropped by our booth for refreshments from two SMBs: Syngja Cricket Shots from Copenhagen and Blue Bell Coffee from Valencia. 

Enriching the customer service experience
Product offerings used to be a key distinguisher between competitors in the local media space. However, many presenters at the SIINDA Media Tech Conference made it clear that this was a changing trend. As noted by Thomas Friess, a professional board member: “we are more a people business, than a tech business”.

To put it lightly, many of the sessions were a reminder to digital service providers to remember that in today’s market we can’t only differentiate ourselves based on technology, we also need to work to enrich the experience of the people behind the small businesses that we are serving. Frank Huber from Swisscom Directories AG reiterated this idea by discussing the yellow pages industry's shift from a phone book to a service-driven marketing partner for SMBs.

Rayane Chawaf from Orange reinforced this idea by highlighting the importance of every interaction with SMBs as an important part of their customers’ journey. As such, the human-based service component is incredibly important in ensuring a successful digital transformation not only for your company, but also a digital transformation for the SMB as they grow their technology with you as their trusted service provider. And providing service does not only benefit the SMB, but as Peter Urmson from Spotzer pointed out: “often the company that provides the best service is the company generating the most revenue”.

Taking e-privacy seriously
For companies within the European Union, Stéphanie Verihalac, SIINDA, Rhett-Christian Grammatik from VDAV, Dr. Irene Riedel from Müller Verlag and Margit Kaluza-Baumruker from Herold Business Data gave a valuable update on the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation that will come into effect in May of 2018 as well as the leaked e-Privacy regulation articles.

Specific focus was put on the e-Privacy Article 15, which in its current state jeopardizes the local media industry. With the SIINDA organization working hard to lobby and help vendors, media companies, and directories understand the direct implications this may have on our industry, they need local support. For more on about the GDPR and its implications, check out the recent podcast by SIINDA covering just this topic.

An award-winning platform

During the annual awards dinner, Mono was honored to be awarded with not one, not two - but four SIINDA Excellence Awards. The winner of three awards - Mono CRM enables business owners to easily capture and manage customer data, so that SMBs can engage customers through newsletters and password protected pages. For Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, we are thrilled that the awards panel recognized our We Drive Business video as it truly showcases the Mono vision of empowering SMBs in the digital landscape. 

Silver Awards in two categories:
Mono CRM in Best Solution that Leads to Transaction
We Drive Business video in Best Marketing, Advertising & Promotion

Bronze Awards in two categories:
Mono CRM in Best Technology
Mono CRM in Best B2B