The "On Demand" World

I finally got an iPod. I know, most of the civilized world already has at least one, but I never got around to it before, and someone finally gave me one as a gift. In the few months that I've had it, I've already noticed that I'm not using it the way I thought I would.

Instead of dumping all my existing CDs onto it and having a virtual jukebox on the go, I find that I'm downloading a lot of podcasts. I also find that I'm downloading podcasts of radio shows that I used to listen to in the car. That's not remarkable on its own, but what is interesting is that I primarily use my iPod in the car. I've quickly got into the habit of downloading these podcasts and listening to them in the car, when I could just as easily be listening to them on the radio live.

I know I'm not alone in doing that, so I've been thinking about why people do it - why listen to a podcast of a CBC radio documentary, instead of just turning on the CBC and listening live?

Of course, the answer is that I'm getting used to having content presented to me when and how I want, and I'm not interested in content that's served to me according to someone else's schedule. More and more, that seems to be the case with how we consume services (whether it's broadcast content, or any other kind of service), we want them on our terms, not someone else's.

Another example is TV. I have a PVR that records my shows and keeps them organized for me. I couldn't tell you when any of my favorites are actually scheduled, I just know that new episodes appear every week. In fact, I don't care when they're scheduled - that's the TV network's problem to figure out, not mine. I just want the new episode. 

To a certain extent, I blame the banks for this. When banks rolled out ATMs in the 80s, all of a sudden we could access our money whenever and wherever we wanted. Not long after that, we could pay bills and do all our banking through ATMs, then phones, then computers. When the web hit, the door blew open even further. 

As those things have progressed, we've become more and more picky about how we consume services - we don't want to be forced to stand in line, pick through a catalog, wait for business hours, drive to a meeting, etc. We want what we want, and we want it NOW.

So, what does that have to do with drivers? 

Well, if that's the world we're living in now (and moving deeper into all the time) then that's the world we have to do business in. Trucking is already a "get it when you need it" business, but that doesn't always extend to the processes behind the scenes. If you think about the various services you provide to support your drivers, how many are available WHEN and HOW the drivers want?

I'm not saying that someone should be sitting by the phone 24/7 ready to take a driver's call - I think that's actually counterproductive because it assumes that drivers want to speak to a live body. All of the things I mentioned above are automated through technology, and heavily weighted towards self-serve. I think the on-demand model is a much better approach. Obviously, providing drivers with self-serve, on-demand training is a great idea (and I just happen to know where you can get some ;-)) but there are lots of other driver related processes that could easily be offered in a self-serve fashion as well.

Many companies have online portals for benefits administration, payroll and settlements, forms management and processing. More progressive companies are recognizing that coaching and mentoring can be administered entirely online (and by providing discussion forums and chat rooms, they've also got a mechanism for documenting best practices and tracking activities), and with newer technology entire communities can be created completely within an on-demand environment.

How are you using an on-demand approach to improve your business? Let me know.