Ensure continuity for the customer 

Ensure continuity for the costumer, not yourself.

According to killer apps, this is one of the 12 principles of successful digital strategy.

It means, pace your transition to digital strategies by the needs of your customers, not by the disruptions it causes to your current operating models.

To do it, focus on continuity for customers by designing products and services that solve a customer problem or eliminate a customer burden.
 

It includes also traditionnal strategies which deal with the customer as long as they can interfer in the relationship. Indeed, instead of focusing only on the selling part, the company will keep in touch after the sale by installing the material, by making sure regularly that the product still statify the client, by developing a good after sale service. This strategy goal is to make people come back and buy in the same brand.

This strategy is really effective on the web where emailing for example is very easy to produce.

Real world applications

Those examples are from Unleashing the Killer app: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance by Larry Downes and Chunka Mui.

Security First Network Bank (p. 124), the Internet-only bank, is one of the best of the banking and retail sites on the Web today. Offering traditional banking services over the Internet including virtual checking, Security First provides customers with access to round-the-clock service, and a 100% security guarantee. The company has substantially outperformed traditional new bank branches, securing $48 million in deposits within one year. Security First is also selling its assets from the online pilot, and is now focusing on marketing its software—-landing agreements to deploy its technology and expertise with 50 financial institutions.

WebTV Networks (pp. 121-122) developed a device that connects home televisions with the phone network to enable Internet access, effectively establishing service to a market that wanted access to the Internet without having to buy a computer. In over two years, WebTV has an established user base of 150,000 subscribers. The company has also cemented various alliances with content and hardware providers to establish their network. In August 1997, Microsoft acquired WebTV for $425 million, to tap into WebTV's low cost technology for providing Internet access to the masses.

Tags : Continuity  Customer