The Delivery Economy: How Covid-19 is Changing Every Business

Gig economy. Service economy. Right now it’s a “delivery economy,” customers have high expectations for contactless convenience, and our resident technology experts don’t see this changing anytime soon. Businesses of every kind will need to pivot to meet customers where they are (and where they don’t want to be). 

How do you offer world class service when people don’t want to come into your store? If you’re a local hardware store, you offer a personal shopper service. Your personal shopper will gather everything you need, offer substitute products when they are out of something on your list, ring up your purchases by phone, and deliver it right to your car. This is how a mom and pop shop can compete with big box retailers. Businesses are using technology and a high degree of service to level the playing field in a Covid-19 digital world.

In healthcare, there is an unprecedented willingness to adopt technology as doctors of every kind pivot to telemedicine and the use of technology in this less personal, highly digital world. And as telemedicine continues to increase so will the need for more connected devices.  

Don’t go it alone. Thingee has been helping businesses architect technology solutions for over 21 years. Give us a call at 973-644-9012 x11 to find out how you can deliver a higher level of service.

Stay safe out there!

Jeff Bromley
jeff@thingee.com
973-644-9012 ext. 11

Tech-Talk brings you the latest tech advances to put you ahead of the curve. Look for future Tech-Talk posts, subscribe to our email list, and give Thingee a call to discuss how this new tech can help achieve your goals. One way to ensure you won’t miss any of our Talk-Talk video casts is to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Transcript:

hey everybody welcome back to thingies

Tech Talk where we talk about all things

tech I’m Jeff Bromley and I’m Rob Berra

and today we’re here to talk about how

the new delivery economy is going to

change the future of retail and food

service and the effects that those

changes will have on the delivery of

healthcare all right so first we’ll

start with of course what is the

delivery economy well I mean the

delivery economy is basically the

current state of affairs in most of the

country if not the world basically in

order to stay alive companies are having

to adopt things that previously they

weren’t necessarily interested in doing

whether it’s working with doordash or

instacart or uber eats you know lots of

liquor stores have been signing up with

drizzly so that alcohol can be delivered

you know many states that had strict

liquor laws or having to deal with the

fact that people are trying to purchase

you know much more of that particular

segment of product than what they’re

used to so you’ve got to be able to meet

people where they are people don’t want

to go into a store people don’t want to

go into a restaurant because it’s a

potential vector of infection and people

don’t want to be exposed to that so this

is going to change how customers are

going to interact with businesses in the

future because they had a different

experience and yes they are now spoiled

however this is allowing for businesses

to currently maintain so this past

weekend I needed to get a few things

from the hardware store and rather than

going to Home Depot and braving the

masses I decided to call my local

hardware store and they said we’ve got a

wonderful personal shopper experience I

told him everything I needed I need a

few things for landscaping got

everything they called me back when it

was ready I pulled up I picked

everything up and put it in my trunk and

I went on my way this was a wonderful

experience and yes I too have gotten

spoiled with this and rob has seen a

similar example with with his latest

doctor’s appointment that’s true so I

recently ran out of medication didn’t

quite know how to handle it usually you

know my local drug store will contact my

physician get the refill taken care of

so

times I get a call sometimes I don’t and

you know it just gets refilled for the

three-month supply that I get well this

time you know the prescription just kind

of disappeared from the system and I

wasn’t quite sure what to do so I called

my doctor’s office got the voicemail and

you know hey we’re sorry the office is

now closed if you’d like to reach your

doctor dr. Smith’s offices this one dr.

Wang’s office is this one and he they

actually gave me his phone number and I

got to text them you know his my

doctor’s phone number directly and he

set up a face time with me in in less

than 30 minutes from when I had reached

out had a quick video call talked about

how things were going all that kind of

stuff and you know he called in my

prescription and I went and picked it up

that day you know and even when I went

to the to the store to pick up the

prescription I didn’t have to go in I

just called them and said hey I’m here

and someone from the pharmacy department

actually walked it out and dropped it in

my car so you know companies that don’t

have drive-through windows companies

that you know don’t have the personnel

on hand to do that kind of thing you

know I think about some of the big-box

stores you know Walmart and Target come

to mind you know the jokes always about

the lack of cashiers and things like

that in you know for the foreseeable

future

if those stores do remain open and are

able to you know have some sort of

normalcy they’re not gonna be able to do

that they’re gonna need to provide more

people in order to have people get

through the store and get out faster you

don’t want everyone touching you know

checkout things all of their own so when

you talk about physicians in the

point-of-care you’re gonna have a lot

more opportunities because you have a

few things working in your favor right

now as far as telemedicine is concerned

you have an unprecedented willingness

for people to adopt technology that

previously they may not have wanted to

or or felt like they could before and

you’re going to have a whole lot of

opportunities with new types of devices

that are connected whether it’s an Apple

watch or a blood glucose monitor that

cuz that’s kind of a connected device

heart rate monitors blood pressure

monitors that sort of thing all of those

devices as they become more prevalent

will of course go down in price more

people will have them and you know I

mean you never know insurance companies

may be willing to subsidize some of this

equipment in order to not only reduce

the frequency of in-person visits and

offices but also to prevent the spread

of you know the common cold or other

types of illnesses so technology and

this different level of customer service

this delivery economy that we are

currently in which are gonna be in for

quite some time is going to help

businesses survive not only the big-box

retailers but the local mom-and-pop

shops too so when you think about the

large hospital chains versus the smaller

doctors offices this gives both of them

the opportunity to survive you know I

talked a little bit before about the

retail experience I had with that

hardware store well that was only

because the first Hardware I store I

called said they couldn’t help me

because they had a line you know they

were obviously taking people into their

store the second one which I called

which I’ve dealt with on on previous

occasions said not a problem here’s a

personal shopper so that they were able

to differentiate themselves and get that

sale because they were willing to

provide a minimal level of customer

support when you think about it all it

was was a a phone call and a phone order

and they let me know what they had in

stock what they were able to get for me

and they brought this out to my car

which made me a very happy consumer

because I was able to minimize my

exposure to other people which I was

extremely extremely happy about right

and so if you want to talk let me jump

in here with that on that okay go ahead

you know and and you know my my

telemedicine experience notwithstanding

I mean we are heavy users of instacart

in the Barrett household we we adopted

Peapod probably thirteen years ago and I

really have have heavily used to grocery

delivery services over the years but one

thing that I’m finding very helpful is

how the people that are working for

instacart that are going and doing the

shopping are actually getting very

engaged with the people on the other end

like us saying okay here’s what’s in

stock they you know here’s something

close to it they take

picture of it they sent it to you you

know that level of customer service that

were that they are providing to us is is

tremendous I mean not not even talking

about the risk that they’re making for

themselves and and you know by going

there but the fact that they’re actually

putting in that extra effort is is just

really outstanding and it’s really what

is making the difference for for their

businesses and then themselves their own

livelihoods and and it’s really where

other companies are gonna have to adapt

because you know the days of not

providing tremendous customer experience

have to be over it’s just it’s just not

not a thing anymore yeah so if you would

like for us to come in and talk with

your team well not actually come in

right now absolutely have a nice coming

in well we’ll have a zoom meeting or

whatever your teleconference du jour is

yes and and talk about technology and

talk about where things are going talk

about how you can differentiate yeah and

and from robbing myself I mean this is

something that we do on a daily basis

we’re looking at these technologies

learning about these technologies and

understanding it and that’s our role

that’s what we’re good at so we we want

to help them you know we would love to

share our knowledge with you and your

team I mean we’re actually from a

technology and knowledge perspective I

mean just even to produce these videos

in the environments that we that we have

I’m sitting in my basement we’re

actually going to share some pictures of

what our setups look like just being

able to cobble together a whole bunch of

different things in order to produce

this it’s it’s just as you know part and

parcel of who we are and how we operate

so we’d love to help and you know if

your business is having trouble adapting

let us know we’re happy to come in and

and help you out yeah so for this

episode of Tech Talk I’m Jeff Bromley

and I’m Rob Berra and I actually I have

one more thing to mention so I have a

very good friend who is constantly

watching these videos and giving me

feedback which I find invaluable name’s

Joe Pico someone I went to college with

he and I played hockey together at Seton

Hall and he was harassing me about all

the things that I have in the back

ground that I didn’t have anything

specific to Seton Hall hockey and I

actually looked and I looked to see if I

had a Seton Hall hockey puck and I don’t

but I do have the puck that I scored two

goals and had one assist and actually

scored on Joe at the alumni game in 2015

so so Joe I hope you appreciate I still

have this it doesn’t have a Seton Hall

logo on it but it does have that nice

piece of tape and it still holds a place

very deep in my heart so for this

episode of Tech Talk I’m Rob Berra stay

safe out there okay everybody