1.) Secure it.
A growing concern for many commercial customers is data security. Make sure that your company is demonstrating professionalism by providing a secure platform: forget about just handing over a memory stick or dropping files into Dropbox. Customers will want to know that their company data is secure from the time it leaves the drone to the time it reaches them.
Security is especially important to energy and insurance industries but is becoming more critical across sectors, as customers become more aware of the value that drone data can provide. Fortunately, it’s not hard to show clients a secure and efficient process. Tools designed specifically for drone operators, like the Optelos Drone Data Management platform, help manage and secure the data – and handle analysis and delivery.
2.) Add Value
It’s not enough to provide raw data, the most successful drone businesses will provide useful analysis and additional value. Commercial customers – and commercial drone operators – who use drones regularly accumulate a lot of data. In order for the data to provide maximum value, stakeholders need to be able to find what they want, when they want it. The easier you make it for your client, the more value you are able to provide.
You can tag footage manually or use endless worksheets and naming conventions to try and identify each piece of data – but there are definitely better ways. With AI technology and sophisticated software, data management gets easy, organizing files by tags, notes, and tasks so that all of the stakeholders can find what they need. Optelos, for example, uses a proprietary AI platform to classify and tag data – eliminating about 50% of the manual work involved in organizing data.
3.) Deliver Like a Pro
If your company has performed a difficult mission with expertise, you don’t want to appear unprofessional when it comes to handing the data to the customer. Data delivery isn’t just the finish to a mission, it’s an opportunity to provide maximum value and real “wow” factor to the process.
For a reasonable monthly fee, platforms like Optelos allow you to easily provide a branded customer portal. There’s no reason to recreate the wheel and build your own – use a tool designed for drone data that gives you built-in security and gives your clients their own unique ID to access their results. Make it easy for your customers to get maximum value from their drone program, and you’ll get repeat business.
As the drone industry grows, customer expectations and standards are going up. Using the right tools to help manage and deliver customer data will give your company an advantage – and the ability to grow.
Alan is serial entrepreneur, active angel investor, and a drone enthusiast. He co-founded DRONELIFE.com to address the emerging commercial market for drones and drone technology. Prior to DRONELIFE.com, Alan co-founded Where.com, ThinkingScreen Media, and Nurse.com. Recently, Alan has co-founded Crowditz.com, a leader in Equity Crowdfunding Data, Analytics, and Insights. Alan can be reached at alan(at)dronelife.com