It is not unusual to hear companies speak of their desire to provide excellence in customer service. However, the emerging trend in customer service is having you do it yourself! Self-service (also called CX) is an emerging trend in the customer service realm (Shaping Tomorrow). Consider whether you have used any of these self-service options recently:
On a recent trip to Europe, I experienced a few interesting twists on CX:
Expect significant growth in the CX industry in the next decade. In fact, Shaping Tomorrow states that 70% of us already expect web sites to have self-service functionality (business tip – how often have you experienced frustration searching for this on a web site? How easy is it to find on your site?). Already, over 60% of customers use self-service for their baggage at airports and over 200,000 terminals support ApplePay.
Self-service can make our lives a lot easier. Sometimes!
There is a time and place when we really like self-service (like the hotel key drop-box when we are leaving our hotel in a hurry). There is also times when it can be incredibly frustrating (can you recall the 15 minute phone calls where you press 1 and 2 repeatedly to try to find the service you need?). I believe that successful self-service is based on a simple principle – making your customers life easier or more convenient! In contrast, when self-service is driven by the need to make a company’s life easier I believe it will be prone to fail.
However, when it provides you with an advantage, you will use it. After all, spending less time with an immigration agent is a good thing, isn’t it!?!
Postscript: An hour after posting this I read a related article titled, The UK Wants Nationwide Contactless Travel by 2022. It embodies this concept very well!
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Jeff Suderman is a futurist, professor, consultant and pracademic who works in the field of organizational development. He works with clients to improve leadership, teamwork, organizational alignment, strategy and organizational FutureReadiness. He resides in Palm Desert, California. Twitter: @jlsuderman. Email: jeff@jeffsuderman.com
Source
Help yourself in the future. Shaping Tomorrow. Retrieved from http://www.shapingtomorrow.com/home/alert/1270950
Photo Source: PBS http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/tech/biometrics-and-the-future-of-identification/
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