The arrival of new technologies in this decade has been the major factor that has caused fast changes in consumer behavior. For instance, in the past, most people watched the news on TV, but now in the age of the Smartphone when there is Internet everywhere, in just a few years everyone shifted to being addicted to online media. Conventional media businesses were in a state of chaos. They had to change their way of doing business and figure out how to go online. Big shifts like this came about in almost every business sector, including real estate. Consumers don’t think of houses as just places to live, but they want them to be modern spaces with all kinds of conveniences.

Nuttaphong Kunakornwong, the big boss of SC Asset, which is a leading property developer, said he began to see new trends in consumer demands in 2017, so he changed his vision and business approach to keep in step with the new trends. From being a property developer that built conventional kinds of houses and condominiums, he wanted SC Asset to become a Living Solutions Provider that can harness technology to solve all kinds of problems for its customers.

This concept started in 2018, but at first it changes were not very apparent. Then, when the COVID-19 crisis hit, he knew that he was steering SC Asset in the right direction, because suddenly people had to do so many things at home, including leisure, work, shopping and learning – all of this was now happening in the home. With families spending all their time at home, houses and condos started to show more wear and tear and were in need of various kinds of repairs. But at the same time, because of the pandemic, many people were short on spending money and very concerned about saving. People’s ideas about the ideal home location had also shifted. Being located on a major road is no longer as important as long as all the services can reach your home. A solution provider needs to take all these points into consideration.

For SC Asset to make its vision a reality, they needed not just to set a goal, but to set a direction and decide on a path, with the flexibility to change that path as needed depending on the changing situation and the surrounding environment. In the case of SC Asset, they wanted to set up the best living space so that their customers would wake up and have a Good Morning every day, so they would have energy and time for all their daily activities. In the past, finding ways to satisfy your customers and meet their needs started with asking questions like “what product or service could meet their needs?” but now that new technology has changed consumer behavior, the background concept of the right questions to ask has to change. We have to start with the customer’s problems as the core and ask ourselves, “how can technology solve this problem?” and “who can technology help?”

In the past, we created products and services to present to customers, but now we design platforms and solutions to meet their needs. Platforms are central venues for people to come together, so competent people with different skills can be matched with partners who complement them. With their combined abilities, they can identify and suggest solutions to arrive at what the customers need. In line with their concept of making sure every customer has a Good Morning every day, SC Asset had to change from being a product provider to being a solution provider.

They have to change their organizational culture, and bring in new concepts and knowledge, as well as setting up a digital platform to support better back-office work. Most importantly, they must create a strong ecosystem by pulling in expert partners from different fields to help expand the capabilities of all their products and services.

For example, SC Asset was already skilled at property development and had many real estate projects it had sold, but they found that customers now wanted high-speed internet in their homes. So, they formed a partnership with AIS Business, which has strengths in networks and Cloud services and is one of the top network providers in Thailand. Together they could deliver a high-speed fiber optic internet service to customers in every unit of SC Asset’s projects, and could offer special price promotions. Customers could use IoT devices linked to the Cloud and check the status of various appliances or systems in their homes remotely through their smartphones. These are solutions that should be able to meet the needs of home-buying customers. You can see why AIS Business is now an important network partner for SC Asset.

AIS Business is a comprehensive ICT Service Provider for enterprises and SMEs/SMBs. Its strong point is network, 5G, Cloud, IoT and M2M services, and it also provides many other services that can help every kind of business upgrade and realize their true digital transformation.

Customers only see the problems after trying out living in a new home

SC Asset set up the “Rue Jai Club” or “We Get You Club,” a community where homeowners can congregate and share their experiences. SC Asset developed the RueJai Platform and application as the central clearing house to deliver solutions to its customers. Everyone who buys a unit in an SC Asset project becomes a member of the Ruejai Club and they can use the app to make reservations for things like cleaning service, house repairs, or installing a grease trap. Many partners from different industries are participating to share their expertise and help offer solutions that meet the needs of homeowners.

From their perspective as a solution provider, SC Asset has come across many diverse needs from different groups of customers, so that has stimulated them to develop new products to meet those changing needs. For example, there are bachelor/bachelorette pads designed for single consumers from Gen Y and Gen Z who want a large living space with only one or two bedrooms but an emphasis on recreational space and with a doggie door or kitty door. Also, as a solution provider, SC Asset has to be prepared for after-sales service, as customers spend time living in their homes and discover that they have needs for new solutions. This is a source of recurring income for the business. Now, about 1 in 3 customers sign up for monthly services, and there is more demand after the COVID-19 situation.

Lastly, organizational change has to start with setting a direction, followed by changing the people and the organizational culture. Executives have to be a central part and they have to be open minded and ready to accept new ideas. They have to understand their team members’ feelings to create full participation from every person in the organization. Then they can work together and proceed to search for and understand their customers’ problems and sources of pain and think up ways to solve those problems. When presenting new solutions, the organization should pause from time to time and evaluate how well they are working and if they have been effective in responding to the pain that was identified. If not, they should adjust or design new solutions. In doing business, SC Asset doesn’t look at what its competitors are doing. It is only concerned with competing against the needs of its customers, so it is constantly watching and listening to see what new problems its customers are contending with. This kind of competition creates good energy, and in the long run the company can hope to keep abreast with its customers’ emerging needs.

Published 3 September 2021