Digital Engagement Blog

Let’s face it. We all know what it feels like to have a horrible customer service experience. So, in honor of #OppositeDay we thought we would provide a few of the worst social customer care practices – the opposite of what you should be doing - and offer recommendations on how to avoid them.

Since 2013, we have been casting a critical eye on how enterprise engagement solutions solve problems throughout the customer journey. The exponential growth of mobile commerce has amplified both the need for better enterprise engagement solutions and the current lack of true solutions in place across the omnichannel customer journey.

Our latest white paper, Digital Disconnect: How New Consumer Behaviors Disrupt Customer Engagement, revealed some intriguing findings:

I have a surprise for you.

That new Star Wars movie?  It’s not what you expect.

It’s not about Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, or Chewbacca. And the new characters—Rey, Finn, Poe, and others? They are but a backdrop to the larger plot point: Digital engagement.

Think I’m not serious? Read these quotes from the latest installment in the Star Wars franchise and you might change your mind:

Sound familiar? It should...And, if you’re a Star Wars fan, it most certainly does.

Various versions of “I have a bad feeling about this” appear throughout all episodes of Star Wars. For me, the most memorable occurs in episode IV, the original Star Wars from 1977, when Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie find themselves jumping into the Death Star’s trash compactor in an attempt to evade stormtroopers and certain capture. It gets eerily silent, except for some creaking in the walls. Just before the walls start to close in on them, Han Solo is a soothsayer, “I got a bad feeling about this.”

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?

Organizations build systems to deliver desired outcomes in a repeatable, predicable and scalable manner. Most of the time these systems are good things that are downright essential to the success of the enterprise. But what happens when customers change faster than you do? They become harder to engage, and that can wreak havoc on your customer engagement strategy if the changes necessary to meet new customer expectations clash with your internal systems.

You are ready to embark on a journey, but there are many roads you could take. Before you take your first step, you must choose a road that will lead you to your destination. If you believed one road would offer the most pleasant journey to the best destination, is that the road you would choose?

DUH! Of course you’d choose that road. Unless you’re into self-deprivation, right?  

Customer engagement rocks. But only if you get it right. Our recent research on digital consumer behavior suggests that the music on hold when consumers call retailers for assistance might as well be The Rolling Stones classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

Missing out on critical moments when your customers, prospects, browsers, or shoppers are visiting you in your digital world—and by that I mean your website, mobile website, and mobile app—is like missing thousands of spectacular shooting stars passing you by as you briefly turn to look the other way. Who would deliberately do that? Well, unfortunately, a lot of incredible stars are passing by right under your nose and on your watch.

It’s not what you’re thinking. This is a tale of customer experience in a time of remarkable change. It begins with showrooming, the despicable term that brick and mortar retailers utter with a sneer much like Jerry Seinfeld’s every time he greeted Newman. I bet you can picture a showroomer right now roaming your store. (Sneer) Showroomer.