Mobile Service Design- Don't Build for Heavy Users Only

I read an article on mobile experience recently from an executive that made my pause and think.  Here is the quote:

"We wanted to create an application specifically for our MaxPerks members first, because they are our most responsive customer base and their feedback is immediate.

If we can exceed the expectations of our most loyal customers and address the feedback they give us, then we feel it will make the app better and more appealing to a broader base of consumers."


What made me stop and think about this was the idea that you should be designing for the people that use your application the most and let all the other customers needs come second.  I don't think that I agree with this methodology or approach.  I understand that companies take this line because they think it will do two things for them:


1.  It may help them to get on the map quickly with their mobile experience and will allow them to at least start somewhere.


2.  The more loyal customers typically are more vocal and will help with the best feedback to design something more useful.


The challenge with this mindset for concept design or interaction design is that when you design for the most experienced or most loyal, you likely will miss what the majority really need or want.  


And this is not just a mentality that is specific to mobile.  I have heard this same concept run through the streams of design for websites for companies as well, specifically when I speak with people about web self service.


There are very few companies that have the luxury of designing for their loyal users first or just putting out to the masses what they think will work.  The only industry that comes to mind right now is the banking industry because by it's very nature is a "sticky" industry, meaning I am interacting with my bank many times a month typically for transactions or issues.  Because that is the case, most users of bank apps or mobile sites are going to be proficient at using what has been designed.


But most every other industry out there, consumers are not as sticky to their site or app.  They may visit once a month or twice a month to interact with your brand.  And this is the majority of consumers for a majority of brands.  In my mind, with this reality being the case, the design process should not just start with a loyal few in mind.  But instead should focus on the masses that infrequently interact with you.  You want them to be blown away.  You want them to see the ease of use.  You want them to come back and tell their friends how great of an experience it was.  


I am not a design expert, but I say design for the lowest common denominator masses, release it and then layer on more and more for the loyal few.


What do you think?

5 Essentials for Mobile Customer Service

I have been trying to figure out lately what is going to happen over the coming years as we start to use mobile devices more and more for service.  I have been doing research into this space a bit and have been reading alot of blogs about the topic as of the last few weeks.  I also have been working to be hyper aware of when I need service and what I do with my mobile device when I am starting the service process with a company.  All of that reading and attention to my own patterns have culminated in this post about what may be the keys going forward for a company thinking about their mobile strategy for customer service.  A quick note before we start though.... These items I talk about below all need to build from a strategy that is agreed upon by all the stakeholders.  Mobile customer service currently is in a bit of a shambles for most companies because for many companies it is still unclear who owns what.  So before starting to think about these things below, make sure you get all the right people in a room and decide what you want your mobile customer service to be before you start thinking about technology and tactics.

After you have taken the time to think about what your mobile customer service is and what it is not, here are some tactical items that will be key to accomplishing your goals:

1.  To App or Not to App

To me, this is the biggest question that will face most companies in the coming years.  Eventually, I think this question will be answered by the advancement of technology, but for the short run, it will be a big question for most companies to solve for.  Why is this such an issue?
Think about your own actions when using a mobile device for service.  You are in the store or on the train or sitting on your couch and you think about an issue you need to resolve.  The first thing you do is whip out your mobile device and likely do one of two things, either google your question or go to the company website and start to look through their info to find an answer to your question.  No where in that flow did you have a burning desire to go download an app from the an App Store of some kind to have on my device so that I could get my answer.  The only exception to this might be a service provider that has deep relationships with their customers and they interact with the company frequently, meaning multiple times per month.  Example of this might be a bank or telco service provider or even a site like Amazon or eBay that have frequent customers.
But for the large majority of companies out there, no matter how badly you want people to engage with you multiple times during the month, they likely will not and will then not want to have to go and download your app just to get service from their mobile device.
So, my opinion is that if you have an app already that is out in the market place, it might make sense to add your customer service tab to this app to have some presence.
If you are still working on the mobile care strategy for your company, my sense is that pushing toward a mobile web experience may end up being more friendly for customers for the way that they will want to interact with you.
Either way, answering this question by thinking about the customer experience first, will go a long way in developing a strong and useful mobile customer experience.

2.  Which Mobile Device to Focus On

It is pretty clear that there are three big opp systems now that dominate the global smartphone/smartdevice handset market.  iOS, Android and Windows.  I am not an expert on development or on operating systems, but every chart that I have read in the past few months is pretty clear that the smart device market is only growing and the players that are clearly in the lead are the three mentioned.  So I think the answer here is that you have to likely think about your strategy in a multi OS environment.  This is not to say that you should launch from the beginning in this way.  Might make sense to first test on one OS and then scale from there.

3.  Service in a 3.5 inch Space

Next biggie for me:  How will you as a company work to create an experience that is simple, relevant and meaningful on a device that could be as small as 3.5 inches?
This will require some starts and stumbles until companies start to get it right.  My sense is that most companies will start with just the basic search type funcationality that might link back to their traditional web site.  Or they will have a CS tab in their app that will try to provide a cleaned up visual with FAQ kind of functionality.  But quickly, I think we will see companies realizing that they need to broaden the way they think about service on these smaller device types.  Companies will start designing interactions that make more sense based on the device type.  For phones, companies could start using location data or voice interfaces to let customers ask more specific questions that would not be limited by a basic search interface. They could leverage new and exciting interfaces to let users interact with them in ways that will bring context and personalization to the interaction, something that is sorely missing in a mobile customer experience today with service.  Eventually, the Siri for the enterprise will dominate this space I believe.  Whether through text interface or voice, every company will have their own Siri company assistant that will help customers find what they need in a way that is much more natural for these mobile devices that have limited screen/visual real estate.

4.  Integration Is a Nightmare, Where to Start

In order for any service expereince to be relevant and meaningful to customers, it needs to feel personal, be simple and just work.  I hate to say it, but this will likely require integration to other systems.  8 years ago, web services were going to change the world, but unfortunately, not everyone has caught up yet.  Especially the very large companies that are still making their way through the big nightmare engagement with IBM or Accenture to become "Web Service Enabled".
If you can't do the big things that will be really useful for the customer experience off the bat because IT will need to build out a bunch of things for you, focus on processes that may not need integrations, but are still step by step instructions that someone could be walked through visually instead.  As the integrations become available, start to plug them in to make the interaction ever more context aware and more personal.
If we have learned one thing over the last 10 years, it is that the ability to start small and scale is paramount to success with any technology project.  No different here.  Don't try to boil the ocean.  Put together the end state on paper and then make your way there over time, proving success every step of the way.

5.  What About Non-Smartphones?

Living in the US or Europe or any major city in the rest of the world, we start to get spoiled in thinking that everyone must have a smartphone by now.  But recent research shows that there are about 6 billion mobile devices on the planet and just 700 million of them are "smart" devices.  Which leaves alot of people still running around with a Nokia handset that is really good at text messaging and maybe making a phone call or two.  What do you do with them?
If you have a large base of customers that are using non smart devices, it might make a lot of sense to invest in a strategy that is focused on SMS.  Answering questions and automating the process of customer service within that channel.  There are billions of customers out there that are using SMS as the primary channel for communication with companies and there is a real opportunity to create an experience that makes this channel simple, personal and reliable.

So, to sum it up, I think the mobile expereience for service is still evolving, but will be coming quicker than we think.  I also think that if we try to just re-create or re-purpose the existing strategies from the web, we will be missing a real opportunity to innovate for customers.

What do you think mobile cusotmer service looks like?

Transparency Is King

I was doing my normal reading the other day of blog posts and my twitter feed when I saw a blog post that stuck out and made me think about a major issue that customer service organizations are facing and will likely continue to struggle with for some time, Transparency in customer service.

You see, the post I was reading was a post about Charter Communications and their customer service transformation process. They have pushed out some marketing messaging promising a much better customer experience as they see the competition heating up, they see service as a differentiator. Smart move on their part in my mind, but the blog post went on to show some interesting messages from social media about the company and their challenge with transparency was front and center.

Message after message talked about how much easier and faster it was to get something taken care of if the person used Twitter as their primary source or channel of entry to deal with Charter. The customers talked and even glowed about the fact that they just had to say a few negative things and immediately someone was responding to them and getting them set up with what they needed to get their issue resolved. Now, this is not a phenomenon that is isolated to Twitter only and to Charter only. This is something that all companies are struggling with and will continue to struggle with until they align their customer service practices with Twitter in one major way, Transparency.

That is what Twitter and Facebook drive in so many ways. Not just with Customer Service issues, but with pricing, marketing, product and on and on. Some will call this collaboration, some will call it co creation with consumers, but I just like to boil it down to one key thing, Transparency.

No rocket science here, but as we all know, social media outlets give consumers the voice to punish brands or companies when they are not being transparent. Everyone can see for themselves when someone has an issue and what the brand is doing about that issue. The big challenge for companies and especially service executives is getting their teams aligned internally to make sure that the same kind of transparency exists in every other channel. If you don't make this a priority, it is my opinion that customers will only then do one of two things:

1. They will continue to use Twitter or Facebook to continually punish you for not making your other channels more transparent

or

2. They will just continue to jump from one new channel to the next knowing that the newer channels of support will represent the fastest and easiest way to resolve an issue.

So the question today for you is, Have you aligned your channels for support so that your customers don't feel like they need to find the "shiny new channel" to get the service the desire?

What A Cab Driver Can Teach Us About Customer Experience

I was recently in a midwest city with some colleagues attending a meeting with a current customer of ours.  I had a number of other meetings in this city over the couple days I was there, so I chose to rent a car.  But my colleagues were coming in for one meeting and then leaving again, so they chose to take a cab downtown to their hotel for the meeting.  Nothing strange or unique about this for most of us that travel a bit for work.  What happened next can teach us all a bit of a lesson about a unique customer experience and it's impact on a business.

After our meeting took place and my colleagues were getting ready to return to the airport, they got out their phones and dialed up the taxi driver that had dropped them off from the airport the night before.  Nothing real unusual about this in my mind, but we were in a mid major downtown area that had plenty of taxi cabs zooming by, all anxious for a fare to the airport.  So I asked them why there were so intent on calling this one taxi driver to drive them.  They said to me that they felt obligated to ring him back up and have him drive them.  I found this a curious response, so I probed a bit and this is where it gets good.

They said that they felt obligated to call this driver in particular because when he dropped them off at the hotel the night before he declined payment from them and just told them they could pay him tomorrow after he drops them back off at the airport.  Just like your mouth is right now, mine hung wide open in the universal sign of being dumbfounded by what you just heard.  Then, I started thinking about why this guy did this and I turned from dumbfounded to chuckling at his utter genius.

Part of what he was doing was genius because of the experience that he was creating for the customer by making it simple to just pay one time and not worry about multiple swipes, knowing that you will have a cab waiting for you when you need it and not having to manage multiple receipts for multiple trips in a cab to expense back to the company.

The other part was genius for him and his business as a sales man.  By creating this unique offer for you as a customer, what he was doing was pulling on the internal moral string that all of us have to be fair to the people around us.  He was taking a calculated risk that has likely paid off handsomely for him and his business.  He was betting that the moral compass and willingness to do the right thing was going to outweigh that desire to skip a fare.  And in taking this bet, he has likely built an incredible base of business and virtually guaranteed himself literally hundreds of fares that would have likely gone to his competition.

I love this story because it speaks to how unique and differentiated experiences can create opportunities for those that are willing to be creative.  For those that are willing to step out on the edge and find their own voice in customer experience, there is untapped business to be had.  But you have to be willing to try new things and sometimes trust your customers will do the right thing in return.....

How are you stepping out on the edge today?

The Scalability of Twitter Customer Service

I was reading a blog post the other day and then reading some research as well that talked about the use of Twitter as a customer service channel. The research article threw out some numbers and percentages of how many people are going to Twitter or other social sites to use them as a means to get their questions answered. It is still a relatively low percentage as compared to more traditional channels. But that got me thinking about Twitter in particular and to some degree Facebook as well and the scalability of servicing customers in those channels.

It is not really a big "problem" for most companies today as their volumes in those channels are just a fraction of the volumes of lets say a phone channel or even a live chat channel. But what is going to happen when people continue to share stories about how fast and easy it was to get service done right on Twitter as compared to the 5 min wait for a live agent, a transfer or two to the right agent and then 3-5 min with that agent to figure out the problem?

Just like the channels before it, more and more bodies will likely be the only answer to this eventual problem.

What do you think about this potential problem?

The Misdirect- Why Zappos Really Keeps Customers Coming Back

I have been doing a lot of reading lately on a number of different topics in regards to customer service. One concept that has really started to stick out for me is the idea you need to "WOW" your customers in order to keep them loyal to you. It seems like everyone and their brother is writing about how you need to create a customer service experience that is a "blow your mind" experience in order to come out on top. The classic example that everyone cites is Zappos and their incredibly high Net Promoter Scores. They talk about the Zappos way and the Personal Emotional Connections that Zappos is famous for cultivating. They talk about how Zappos is always trying to create the "WOW" for the consumer.

I have myself been on the Zappos tour and have visited with their Director of Customer Service on a number of occasions. And what I have come away with is less about the froth of the "WOW"and more about the basics. In short, they just make it easy to do business with them.

They put really big and easy to see pictures of their products online to see. They make the ordering process very simple and easy to understand. They make it easy to buy with free shipping both ways. They don't use an IVR to screen calls, they connect you right to a live person. They give their agent freedom to make decisions without checking with a supervisor.

See the real magic to me of what Zappos has done has less to do with helping someone order a pizza, as their CEO Tony talks about in his book, and it is more to do with Zappos knowing, in detail, the journey of their consumers. And not just knowing that journey, but making it easy at every point in that journey to make sure they get what they need. The amount of effort that I need to put out in doing business with Zappos is minimal at best. In my opinion, this is the primary reason why people go back again and again.

If I ordered a pair of shoes and they shipped me the wrong size, I wouldn't care how happy they were, how much they "WOW'd" me or whether or not they were trying to cultivate Happiness if they could not figure out how to get me the right size shoes and made it easy to make that happen. If they put me through a bunch of processes and paperwork and multiple phone calls to make it happen, I likely wouldn't do business with them again, no matter how much "Happiness" they were delivering.

What Zappos understands is how to get the basics right. First, they know their customer journey inside and out. Second, they have figured out unique or interesting ways to make that journey easier. Sometimes that involves technology, sometimes it involves policy and sometimes it just means empowerment. And finally, they wrap it all up with awesome people that are all driving to the same goal.

But lets be clear, they are not successful as a business because they simply have great people that want to make you feel Happy. They are a billion dollar company because they understood early on that being easy to do business with was going to define them as a company. Consumers tend to be happy when the basics are done well and are easy.

That is the genius to Zappos....

Technology Trends 2012- Intelligent Virtual Agents

As we start to wrap up this series of posts around the technology trends of 2012, I think it makes sense to include in the list a few technologies that are on the forefront of breaking through the early adopter phase and are positioned to grow considerably over the coming year to 18 months. The first of these technologies is the Intelligent Virtual Agent.

For those of you that have been around the call center for a while, this is not the idea that you put people in their home and let them take calls from the PJ's. Of course, there are a number of companies that are having great success with that model, but we typically would call that the At Home Agent model. Intelligent Virtual Agents are a combination of technology and design that render a software based "Agent" to field questions and have a human like dialog with a consumer on a website, mobile device or social media page. Think of Apple's Siri technology, only for your corporate website.

The adoption of these types of technology for corporations is still in the early adopter phase, but the steam is picking up for continued growth over the coming year to 18 months. But, as with anything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to acquire and deploy this type of technology. Because of the newness of the market space, there are a few companies that understand the detail behind deploying virtual agents and then there are other companies that are just trying to jump on the bandwagon now and ride the wave. Be sure that if you are evaluating this technology, that you take the time to evaluate the intangibles of a company. In my research, it is not all about the technology behind the scenes. In fact, it is less about the technology and more about the design, strategy and continued improvement of the virtual agent than anything else. Especially if you are looking to deploy on your website. The last thing you want to do is to deploy something that does not engage your user community and only leaves them with a sense of frustration or anger. So make sure to dig deep and understand which company views this as much more than just a fun new add on or a cheap gimmick. Because it has the power to be much more than that.

Again, the Intelligent Virtual Agent is still making it's way out of the cutting edge and only now starting to establish itself as a viable main stream technology and player in the marketing, sales and customer service space. Over the coming months and years, the Intelligent Virtual Agent will start to fight at the budget table with other customer service technologies to pick up funding and start to siphon off some of the momentum from the more established technologies.