As always, a big thanks to everyone who came by the Mono booth even when the sun was calling. We hope everyone at the conference picked up the local Croatian sea salts.

Stop selling products and start selling customer experiences 

Last year, the focus was on the growing role of service and this continues to be an ongoing discussion on how digital service providers can empower SMBs with a better customer experience: “Customer experience is the new currency” said Dr. Gerald Däuble, COO, Mesaic, and I couldn’t agree more. Customers expect businesses to provide them with a personalized, yet non-invasive experience as discussed by our own COO, Svenn Andersen, in his presentation on selling personalization as a service for SMBs. But for small businesses to be successful in delivering a powerful customer experience, their digital presence needs to check all the right boxes.

There is still plenty of ground to cover

Another highlight of the conference was some great research presented including the Digtial Landscape study from SIINDA and Silktide as well as the super interesting churn report findings from 100k SMBs shared by Vendasta.

The SIINDA Performance Landscape Study on the digital readiness of European SMBs revealed that they still have a ways to go with their digital presence. From SSL to fresh content, key stats showed that SMBs simply aren’t keeping up:

• Only 48% of SMB websites are using a form of analytics
• Only 19% of surveyed SMBs have SSL certificates on their website
• Only 5% were selling their products or services online

Brendan King, Co-Founder and CEO of Vendasta presented research findings using data from 100k SMBs serviced through their platform to analyze churn. The numbers showed a staggering argument for true Do-it-with-me services. Getting a customer to engage directly with their platform, early, often (ideally daily) is the key to reducing churn.

• Clients (SMBs) who engage early have a 20% increased retention rate
• Clients who engage weekly have a 28% increased retention rate
• Clients who engage daily have a 60% increased retention rate

Mono wins Gold twice for Industry Excellence

Last but not least, I am super proud to say Mono was once again honored at the Industry Excellence Awards ceremony. This year Mono was awarded two Gold SIINDA Industry Excellence awards in the categories:

• Mono On-Site Engagements in Attribution & Engagement
• Mono Template System in Verticals & Marketplaces

A big thank you to our partners for their support, and to the panels vote of confidence in our platform. We’re thrilled to win another consecutive year and with our recent win for Best SMB service provider from Best-in-Biz International, as the #MonoTeam continues to drive business for our reselling partners and their small business customers, alike. And last, but not least - a HUGE thank you to the SIINDA team for putting on a fantastic conference, engaging content and of course, great entertainment and social networking events.