Three years ago, I would say that if I ever had to go to another tradeshow, it would be too soon. Be careful what you wish for, because I got it and how I have missed connecting with people in person! Therefore, as Microsoft Ignite is quickly approaching, my team and I are getting very excited about attending the event live this year. There are going to be a lot of interesting conversations happening – both at the live and virtual events.

One session you shouldn’t miss: a discussion with Silk CTO, Derek Swanson, on how Just-In-Time Delivery is now necessary to remain competitive in the marketplace.

What is Just-In-Time Delivery, you ask? Let’s put it this way: today, businesses are expected to deliver to consumers exactly what they want, when and where they want it. Consumers are want richer experiences and interactions with businesses that offer more personal relevance, along with useful and timely interactions. What does this look like in the real world?

In retail, this can be an AR/VR experience that allows consumers to virtually “try out” products in their own homes or on their own avatars. It also can look like ultra-personalization on ecommerce websites for repeat and loyal customers.

In healthcare, these types of experiences can include integrated patient experiences across different providers – from your primary care physician to any specialists – along with faster and safer remote access to your doctor.

For software companies, this looks like functional integration of their software with other tools that their customers typical want to leverage, along with common open APIs and distributed architectures that are elastic and cross-platform.

The term “Just-In-Time Delivery” was coined in the manufacturing industry as a method to help improve delivery speeds while cutting internal costs, such as carrying excess inventory. But, as you can see, it translates to other industries where the pressure is on to provide consumers high-value deliverables in a timely fashion.

Patience Is Wearing Thin… And Other Reasons Customers Leave

The key word here is “timely”. Because consumers are becoming more impatient than ever. In the 1990s, consumers would wait an average of 8 seconds for a page to load. That dropped to 5 seconds in the 2000s and today, they’ll only wait 3 seconds for a page to load! With some many options on different sites, consumers won’t tolerate a slow loading site or application. If your site takes longer than even 3 seconds to load, you’ve lost them! They’ll go to your competitor and research shows that the majority won’t come back.

Beyond customer churn, a poor site experience can lead to many other issues that turn customers off. In retail, this looks like the proliferate abandoned cart issue where customers are loading their virtual carts and then ending their session before check-out. For SaaS companies whose service is their brand, slow response time leaves customers with the impression that the application is clunky and old-fashioned.

In summary: Slow is the New Down.

If your website is down, customers can be more forgiving. Things happen. They’ll check back later. But if your website is slow… there is less trust.

So how can companies deliver a rich, modern, and responsive website or application? That’s exactly what Derek will be talking about in his on-demand session for Ignite! If this sounds like a problem you’re trying to overcome, then you definitely need to check out this session.

And if you’re going to be at the live event in Seattle, let’s connect! My team and I will be there and we can’t wait to meet with you.