Top 5 Lessons We Learned While Evolving Our Customer Portal.
March 13th, 2020
If the Internet made online shopping half as easy as online retailers’ lofty promises, we’d all be deeply satisfied customers. But somehow, when it comes to buying software, many entrepreneurs and enterprises still struggle to find an online vendor that meets their preferences and matches their procurement processes.
In recent times, software has shifted from being a big, one-time purchase to a subscription-based service model that offers the financial advantage of greater flexibility for the paying customer. For example, when Microsoft first launched Office 365 in 2013, initially some people were confused because they saw Office software as something you bought one time. But since then, customers have grown much more familiar with the value proposition of monthly or yearly subscriptions, and they’ve grown accustomed to being able to purchase only what they want and when they need it.
1. Are You Flexible?
That’s why Inova recently launched an upgraded store offering customers an additional layer of flexibility, allowing customers a daily-rated subscription-based model that caters to the business model of the modern workplace by charging only for actual time used on any software purchased.
“In the old era of traditional licenses and managed IT services, I think that fear of commitment made users very nervous,” Dupal Persaud, Inova Product Manager, said. “Today, our customers love the experience of being in control of their software usage and the freedom to increase without committing to any long-term subscription.”
2. Need For Speed
Entrepreneurs running a small or medium-sized business will naturally find themselves handling all kinds of different tasks, being pulled in multiple directions at the same time, to handle everything needed to run even a small enterprise. Fortunately, when it comes to purchasing software, the new Inova Store provides an automated, self-service customer interface, making it easy for first-time customers to browse products and purchase exactly what they need. This helps the SMB sector gain that competitive advantage by moving fast in the market.
3. Easy Point of Sale
Larger organisations may face a different kind of challenge, as even a routine software purchase or upgrade could inevitably involve several personnel across multiple departments. With these larger customers in mind, the new store is designed to allow several colleagues within a single organisation to collaboratively handle the procurement process, all within a single seamless point of sale interface.
“The new store allows the entire transaction to happen in one seamless environment. For example, an IT Manager can visit the store, create an account and originate the purchase by adding to the cart the specific products that meet the company’s technical specifications, for business continuity. A Finance Manager can review and approve the projected costs in the shopping cart. The CTO or CEO can log in on their own time and have the overall view by simply looking at the online Dashboard, while the IT Manager finalizes the purchase.”
4. Come for the Software, Stay for the Support
Inova’s new store brings all the benefits you’d expect from a Microsoft Gold Partner, offering best-in-class solutions in international standards using Microsoft technologies. Customers can request a free pre-purchase assessment that helps them pinpoint the perfect business solutions. Additional, after-sale support is another big win, allowing customers to optimise their software installation, implementation, configuration and security.
“Basically, it’s as easy as shopping on your favourite app or website, and we offer you the added value of our Microsoft Gold Partner professional assistance, expert advice and follow-up technical consultation,” Dupal said.
5. Your customers want you to listen.
When it comes to customer satisfaction, technical expertise is a big plus, but knowledge creation goes both ways. Inova staff are listening to client feedback to better understand customers’ core business goals and find out how Inova can help them to achieve those goals by increasing productivity and securing business continuity.
“We’ve always been confident that our team of experts will guide our customers to choose—and use—the best available software solutions. Along the journey, our experts have learned to pay even closer attention to the feedback from our customers,” Dupal said. “In the past, we were driven by knowledge and feedback; now we’re driven by feedback and knowledge.”
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What do you think of Inova’s new store? We value your feedback! E-mail Dupal or join the conversation on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/38NWUXd
