Remember. The Force will be with you. Always.
It’s been more than ten years since most of us paid much attention to The Force.
When was it last relevant? 2005? 2006? Back then, it was fairly simple to understand.Over the years, though, it has seemingly gone dormant, as if frozen in carbonite. What we knew back then has pretty much stayed with us until today. Not much has changed: why would it, right?But, as you’ve been going about your business, everything has changed. Oh, the storyline seems the same, but make no mistake. It’s evolved and expanded so much, you won’t recognize the characters. You can’t predict how they’ll use their cool devices. You may not even understand their motivations. Who is good? Who is bad?
It seems a lot like Star Wars, eh?
But it’s not...well, not unless you count Han Solo as a customer.
What I’m talking about is your customers and their engagement with your organization…or a lack thereof. And, they've changed.
The Force is strong in your customers; they have the power. They are in control. As customer expectations have evolved, it’s no longer good enough to focus on customer acquisition, product or service delivery, and customer care as separate star systems. Your customers’ use of the Force means you must have a united ecosystem in place…one where simply trusting your feelings could lead to to a fate like Alderaan’s.
That means that the technology and tools that used to be cutting edge no longer compute. If you’re still relying exclusively on that blaster IVR, for example, purely to deflect customer service requests from live agents to control costs, you could be causing the opposite effect: hemorrhaging dollars due to lost customers—the result of a poor, single-channel service experience that cannot meet the needs of today’s digital customer.
And, I’m not just calling out an organization’s comfortable reliance on the voice channel. The same plight comes with any siloed customer experience that cannot (or does not) respect the new expectations of your customers.
It’s no longer enough to have mobile service, web tracking, or a storm trooper army of live agents. Even if you have the latest, coolest lightsaber tech, if the experience you deliver isn’t unified; if you cannot meet the needs of your customers at any given moment of time; if you don’t respect the Force...you cannot win. You don’t stand a chance.
But, don’t fear it…because, as we all know….fear is the path to the Dark Side.
Instead, learn how to master it in this excellent read on digital consumer behavior and preferences.
The Force is alive in your customers.
Accept and embrace it, and the Force will be with you, too. Always.
