In my last blog, I discussed how the future of mobile will be about more than just adopting devices and mobilizing existing apps. It will be about transforming processes to deliver Right-time Experiences. For example, Walgreens allows a customer to scan their prescription label, submit it for a refill and pick up it up at their local store. These aren’t necessarily real time experiences, but they are about providing the right information or services at the right time. It requires using big data tools to collect context such as location, presence, motion, and time of day from mobile devices using analytics to process that context, then taking that insight and embedding it into applications and business processes. Leading companies will reshape their business models, increase collaboration, and improve customer relationships with RTEs.

While there are numerous types of Right-time Experiences, there are at least three categories of RTEs that a company should aspire to create: improving care, commerce and communications.

Care. Mobile provides the opportunity to change customer care and customer experience. In many business cases, firms start by replacing volumes of paper or paper-based processes with mobile apps. Other care experiences will combine context from social networks and customer location with existing customer information. For instance, an airline could monitor the social sentiment of its passengers and offer a dining voucher or upgrade to appease frequent travelers that have endured delays or cancellations. KLM provides an interesting example of combining social data and check-ins at the airport to drive brand loyalty.

Commerce. By embedding real-time contextual data in apps, firms can shorten sales cycles, improve data quality, and enhance customer satisfaction. Retailers will build RTEs that improve sales by linking a customer’s prior behaviors, preferences, and sentiment analysis. For example, a retailer could provide an app with a check-in option that provides relevant offers based on the user’s transaction history as well as online data, such as reviews and pricing. If the retailer’s price is higher than an e-commerce retailer, the store’s manager could offer a competitive price match to close the sale.

Communications. Using context such as presence, social network status, and location, a business can transform when, how, and what it communicates to its customers and employees. For example, a firm’s unified communications software could integrate the context of motion, location, and calendar data to automatically detect when an employee has a meeting, if the employee is driving, and when to initiate hands-free services in the car. Once the employee has entered the building, it could automatically transfer the call to the employee’s desk.

I believe RTEs can directly impact the bottom line by reducing costs in the case of care or by improving revenue in case of commerce. Communications RTEs will drive loyalty and improve productivity in employee communications.

Are there other categories of RTEs that I should be researching? Let me know what you think.