If we look back at history, we can see that the central tendency of consumer businesses is to move more and more function to the end consumer and to provide them more visibility to the availability of the product or service. As the phone grew as a consumer device, in order to meet the emerging demand for phone calls, the entire country would have to become telephone operators, and that is exactly what we are: We dial our own service.
Today, technology is enabling new capabilities and I see three trends which are recreating customer service in a new, more responsive, and economically efficient manner: transparency, tribes, and talent.
Transparency is best exemplified by Federal Express's efforts over the years. They were among the first companies to "expose" their internal systems so that not only could the customer schedule pick-ups, print labels, and manage his account, but he could also see the same level of detail the firm had about the location of his shipment. Many firms could benefit by letting customers see where their product or service truly is.
Tribes are groups of people who are passionate about a topic, for example, there is a tribe who cares about airline travel; there's one that feels passionately about the Porsche; another that obsesses over flat screen TVs — and those firms that are great at harnessing tribes change the nature of customer service.
There are tribes ready to be released about any product or service. Those companies who have bad customer service are attacked by the tribe. Those who are good at involve the tribe in creating solutions for other customers.
Turning to the third point, I believe unlocking talent is critical to the customer experience. Let's face it, most of the content that companies put out about how to use their product or service is often terminally boring, or disconnected to the real audience. Talented users can create content that is engaging and useful — sometimes more engaging and more useful than the company's own content. The general message is very clear — open up; involve your audience in crafting solutions as well as the information about your firm's offers to other customers. The economics of this type of customer care are superior to anything that can be done with internal resources alone.
When I did an analysis of a customer service organization at IBM many years ago, the codification of solutions into a knowledge base shifted first call resolution from less than 60% to over 90%. Customers were happier. The technical staff could spend their time on new products instead of chasing down customer problems.
The future will be more connected, with more ability for people to share their impressions, stories and advice. In an ever-more crowded information market, the natural tendency will be for those people who lead the tribes to become important influencers. Those who generate great new content will be the market movers. Isn't it time to get involved in this emerging customer service structure now — while there is still time to build a reputation based on "earned media"?
So my questions for you are:
- • Are you transparent?
- • Do you lead your tribe?
- • Have you unlocked the talent latent in your customer base?
What do you have to lose but the illusion that you are in control of your customers?
Source: Harvard Business Review