Today’s Age of Experience Will Be Replaced By Tomorrow’s Age of Me
Last year I attended *Domopalooza, an annual event hosted by Domo in Salt Lake City. As Josh James, Founder & CEO of Domo, describes it, the event is “that rare type of conference: one that people get excited about. Not only does it offer world-class networking, education, and entertainment , it provides inspiration that lasts well beyond the event.”
I met so many incredibly fascinating people it was literally hard to keep up with all of them. One I was able to keep with was Tracy Yelencsics, Global Head of Marketing and Communications at Conduent, the world’s largest provider of diversified business process services for businesses and governments.
I recently caught up with Tracy and in the course of our conversation it became readily apparent she had some strong opinions and thoughts on a topic near and dear to everyone’s marketing heart: CX. Here’s what we talked about:
Q: Customer Experience (CX). It is a term used by marketers the world over with many differing connotations and definitions. How do you define it?
A: Consumer experience is the aggregate of a customer’s interaction and his or her experience with a company or government agency across every touchpoint to achieve a desired outcome. Click To Tweet
For our clients, it’s the delivery of mission critical services and solutions on their behalf for their end users. They look to us to provide exceptional services and interactions with their consumers, citizens, members, etc. and to help them keep pace with the increasing expectations of each of those end users.
For end users, more directly, customer experience is about providing seamless, personalized and intelligent interactions that meet expectations for simple connections that are helpful and satisfying in achieving a desired outcome. This may entail a range of interactions for citizens, patients, employees, consumers, professional staff or travelers.
Q: As a follow up, there are of course some parts to it that are industry-agnostic, but how does CX vary by industry?
A: Regardless of the industry, our clients and their end users want seamless experiences that keep pace with heightened expectations. And expectations for an interaction continue to escalate because one’s expectation for the next experience is set by the last, best experience.
For example, the Amazon Dash Button sets a new expectation not just for Amazon, but for the next time one travels through a toll or enrolls in employee benefits. We expect every interaction to result in a desired outcome, leading to an experience that is seamless, helpful, intelligent, personalized and connected across all touch points.
For different industries, there are nuanced differences in CX. For example, the experience for an injured worker who is looking to return to health and work as quickly as possible will generally have a different level of urgency and anxiety about his or her outcomes and experience than someone who is resolving an issue with their mobile device.
And, an experience in the financial industry will bring with it a heightened sense of emphasis on security and privacy. And, in other areas, such as tolling, the experience is typically invisible if one is moving through an overhead gantry at highway speed. So across industries, the expectation and therefore the satisfaction with an experience is predicated on the importance and sensitivity of each interaction.
Q: Real time is something not only every company wants but presumably every person insomuch they want “it” – whatever it is in real time. Is there a risk to being ‘too’ fast, too real time if you will? Will there be a tipping point whereby consumers feel like Company X is just a little too close to them/knows too much about them?
A: I’m not sure if “too fast” will ever be a problem in this day and age. However, we can think about this as intelligence or the use of contextualized data for each experience. This will be gated by clients’ and end users’ willingness to provide personally identifiable information (PII) and how secure they feel sharing that information. For example, today’s consumer shares much more personal information than they shared 10 years ago.
But as hackers and identity thieves find new ways to exploit personal information, companies that have access to that data must continue to advance their data security mechanisms across ecosystems, with solutions like blockchain, to maintain users trust. This is an area where the goal posts for data sharing will continue to shift as convenience tips the scale against privacy. I don’t necessarily see a tipping point because the goal line keeps moving.
Q: What lies ahead? Where is CX headed over the next 3, 5, 10 years? Is it the aforementioned tipping point? What other ways can brands/marketers expect to improve CX?
A: Today’s “Age of Experience” will be replaced by tomorrow’s “Age of Me.” Click To Tweet This new age will continue to drive hyper-personalization, connectedness and intelligence at the individual level. As data becomes more available and connected across more devices and ecosystems, it will drive a new level of customer experience.
The Internet of Things (IoT), the advent of wearable and health diagnostic tools, predictive analytics, machine learning, blockchain, real time payments, etc., will drive new expectations for connected experiences. These innovations will know and listen to the end users and make them feel as though the experience is designed personally for them.
*This year, out of an abundance of caution over the risk of spreading illness in light of COVID-19 concerns, Domo made the decision to make this year’s Domopalooza 100% online/virtual. You can read more about this decision via a post from Domo CEO Josh James.
Below is something I am sharing on behalf my ‘brother’ Brian DeMarco, one of the most genuine people I have ever met. Those of you old enough may remember Brian from his playing days with Jacksonville Jaguars and Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL.
Brian’s son Enzo is in the fight of his life and needs our help and prayers. Please take a minute to click on the Go Fund Me page set up to help Enzo and if you’re moved to donate, thank you. If not, that’s fine as well. Either way, please send prayers.
Featured mage by Alexandr Ivanov from Pixabay
