AICEX: In effetti è sempre un tema di “Servitization”. Del resto con la Realtà Virtuale/Aumentata etc.. non offriamo forse delle “semplici” Esperienze?

This is the time when the consumer rules the world, right? The time when our experiences are seamless. The time when the companies we do business with have it all figured out. Right? Not quite.

Doesn’t it feel great when you have an amazing experience with a company? Doesn’t everyone love Amazon? Every time we have one of these, we wonder why there aren’t more of them. The technology exists to make these delightful experiences possible. The promise of a world where interacting with a company is a happy experience is exciting. We still have a ways to go, but there is hope.

As our friends at Servion point out in their blog, Gartner predicts, “during the next three years, 60% of digital commerce analytics investments will be spent on customer journey analytics.” Companies are finally putting emphasis on this critical capability and the resulting journey improvements cannot come soon enough for consumers.

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before

A recent experience with a large satellite provider, you know who you are, tells us all we need to know about whether or not this is our world, yet …

The DVR was not recording shows properly. A family emergency to be sure! Being the family tech guy by default, this was now my problem. You know the drill. You could do some online research to see if anyone else is having a similar problem. But, if you’re like me, you call the unnamed satellite provider, give your phone number at the IVR prompt and then promptly scream “AGENT” at every subsequent menu prompt until you finally get someone.

After hearing the catalogue of menu prompts a few times, the first agent asks for the account information that was just entered! (Hello, fifteen-year-old CTI technology!) This agent cannot help with this particular issue, but promises the next one can. The next agent, of course, needs account information, again. Both agents, clearly reading from a script, are unaware this is not the first call for the same issue.

After thirty minutes of annoying troubleshooting steps that were sure to fail, its decided an equipment upgrade is the best next step… one that requires a payment. Smooth sailing from here, right?

A call comes the morning of the scheduled visit from an unrecognized number. (Does anybody answer calls from unrecognized numbers anymore?) The voicemail says they’ll be here in a few hours. Perfect. The voicemail was followed by two more calls from the same unrecognized number, but the system disconnected before saying anything. “That’s odd”, I think. Shortly after that, there were three e-mails confirming the visit. Geez, I get it! I was on the call when we scheduled the darn thing already. By the way, shouldn’t they know my preferred communication channel is SMS?

The technician arrived on-time and did his part. He completed the job without issue. He probably could have been done in half the time, but he had some great stories to tell. So there is that. Finally! We have the new equipment installed and all is well.

But wait, there’s more! “Would you like to take a survey on your experience?”, says the e-mail. “Which one?”, I think. The experience that led up to needing the equipment upgrade in the first place? The experience after the service visit was scheduled? The experience of interacting with the technician? Or an overall company advocate survey? Oy vey! Delete … Only irate customers take these things anyway, right?

The time is now

Look, if it’s a small or local business that we choose to do business with, they get a free pass if there are less than desirable aspects in the interactions with them. Not so much for any Fortune 2000 company out there. There is no excuse not to be continuously monitoring and improving customer journeys through journey science approaches. If they don’t, we consumers will just leave. The grass has to be greener, right? This is after all the age of the consumer. If that were only the case.

Maybe it’s only crystal clear to those close to the customer journey analytics world that these problems are correctable. That customer experience is the new product that will keep customers loyal. When journeys across multiple channels are connected, these stories speak for themselves from the data. When data is kept in silos, these stories are hidden. So, if these capabilities are available, why do we keep having experiences like this with giant service providers?

Unfortunately, this company, and many others like them, are not customers of ours. But they need to be. Badly. We eagerly await their call for help. Open your eyes people! Fix your journeys!

“Please, please me” – Lennon / McCartney

Disclosure – Tim Friebel is the VP of Product Marketing at ClickFox.

SOURCE: https://blog.clickfox.com/the-age-of-the-consumer-not-so-fast?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=41709453&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–YC0EM_SIPO0coeekxW8Nm5cEGrRBHr2BwCuDKxZCQw1ycjgY-IgqfmmUDZxRvoT7mWLEKR47H591zTUtoBgZ1NYewBg&_hsmi=41709453