ARE YOU PREPARED ?
There Is An Uber Coming To Every Industry
Are You Prepared ?
Remember when we used to hear Prince sing “… party like it ’ s 1999 ” and it seemed so far into the future . How about the year 2020 ? Well , it is just about here , less than three years away . Like parts of the show The Jetsons , the future is now a reality . Today , robots assemble our cars and move Amazon fulfillment center shelves around .
And the call centers of tomorrow are right around the corner . Today , many customers get irritated by customer service reps that seem to just be going through the motions , giving us scripted answers , rushing us along because they are trying to adhere to their strict allowed-time-per-call .
If you think that is bad , just wait . Within a few short years , we will be talking to actual robots working in these call centers . Many companies that run outsourced call centers are working towards turning these jobs over to machines . An article that appeared in the consumer website Consumerist (“ As Expected , Robots Are Taking Over Call Center Jobs ”) tells how advances in artificial intelligence will mean that call center representatives and chat representatives can be replaced with cheap and reliable “ workers ” who don ’ t need sleep or meal breaks .
IS YOUR BUSINESS UBER-PROOF ? Make no mistake about it — every industry has an Uber coming . And every business is in danger of being made obsolete as some new business model with cuttingedge technology enters your industry and steals the majority of your market share . “ Digital disruption ,” the new buzzword for this phenomenon , is everywhere , warns CMSWire . com in Clint Oram ’ s article “ Has Your Business Been Ubered ?”:
We see business model after business model disrupted by the ridiculously fast evolution in mobile tech . New marketplaces are popping up all over the place , and increasingly faster communication keeps connecting buyers and sellers in new ways . Technology has truly punched the accelerator on business transformation in so many industries . But through all of this , one immutable fact remains — the customer is king .
Customers today expect immediate answers and instant gratification . You may have a fantastic product or service , but if you don ’ t put an outstanding customer experience at the center of all your business planning , you will lose . This means the most impactful digital transformation strategy for your business centers around transforming your customers ’ experience with your company . In short : Make it easy . Make it awesome .
The more you intersperse technology between the customer and the company , the more you create complex systems prone to break down , and the more you remove the sense of dealing with a human being . Whether the technology is complex voice mail systems or social media , the net effect is to depersonalize contact between customer and company .
Technology can never be empathetic , build relationships , or make a brilliant comeback when your company drops the ball . Customers crave recognition and a personalized experience . In short , technology cannot provide genuine hospitality . It cannot express empathy , make people feel good , take care of others , express emotions and vulnerability in a relatable way , or make people laugh .
We have subconsciously sent the wrong message to all of our employees that customer service is about the technology : the websites , apps , social media , virtual tours , iPads , kiosks , and self-checkouts . So
our employees start using the technology as a crutch , thinking they have less importance and less of a role with our customers . They rely on the technology to provide the experience . We need to reverse that . Customer experience is 10 percent technology and 90 percent you .
URX You need to make sure that your employees know and understand one critical thing : They are the customer experience .
Those employees who understand that the human touch is an indispensable part , the most important part , of a great customer experience will make the difference . Customers are starving for a humanized experience . To be a person … who matters … with a life . It ’ s really about human connection . Whether it is face-to-face , earto-ear , or click-to-click . +
BY : JOHN DIJULIUS PRESIDENT , THE DIJULIUS GROUP
John R . DiJulius III is the author of The Customer Service Revolution : Overthrow convention Business , Inspire Employees , and Change the World , ( January 2015 Greenleaf Books ). He is the president of The DiJulius Group — a Customer service consulting firm that works with companies like Starbucks , Chick-fi l-A , The Ritz-Carlton , Nestle , PwC , Lexus , and many more . You can email him at john @ thedijuliusgroup . com
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