Digital Engagement Blog

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?

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.”

Sensing danger, I glanced up from my smartphone and stopped dead in my tracks.  Between me and the department store exit lay a shopping man’s nightmare: The Fragrance Gauntlet. A long row of atomizer-wielding trigger-happy “consultants” stood in ambush, ready to interrupt my journey and douse me with free samples of cologne.  I wanted to turn around, but it was too late.  I had already made eye contact.  All I could do was take a deep breath and hold it. 

There’s a deli down the street from my office. It’s one of numerous restaurants within walking distance of where I work. Today I went for my usual order – roasted turkey, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and honey-mustard dressing on freshly baked, whole grain flatbread.

As we all well know, mobile payments are on the rise, and are expected to continue to increase over time. Despite widespread mobile adoption, mobile payments and mobile customer care have not reached their full potential for retailers, app developers, and even marketers.

In part two of this mobile-first customer care series, we discussed how smartphones have changed customers’ expectations – essentially creating a “mobile mind shift” -- and we touched on the five pillars of mobile-first customer care. The mobile mind shift means customers today expect to be able to do anything via their wireless devices in their moment of need. Smart companies will travel ahead of customers and identify these “mobile moments” and find a way to service customers through them in a way that delights them.

Quick: why do you own a cell phone? Is it to play Candy Crush or Angry Birds? Is it to update your Facebook profile with the proud news that your theatrically gifted seven-year-old has been cast as the third tree from the left in the school’s production of the Wizard of Oz? Is it to peek at football game scores during the interminable condo association meeting?  It might be for all of these things, but it’s primarily for convenience. If you’re old enough to remember a life before mobile phones, you’ll recall that making calls while on the go involved finding a phone booth and a quarter and pretending not to notice the highly questionable substance sticking your shoes to the floor.