Enhancing the Customer Experience with

Technology

Chapter 11

11-1© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.  Publishing as Prentice Hall

© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.  Publishing as Prentice Hall

The Experience Economy (Pine

and Gilmore, 1999)

Experience is a fourth economic dimension.

Experiences are distinct from goods and services.

Experiences have two dimensions – participation and relationship.

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The Experience Economy (Pine

and Gilmore, 1999)

Participation:Passive – listening to MusicActive – Driving a racing car

RelationshipAbsorption – Experience enters mind – Watching TVImmersion – Enter experience – Virtual Reality

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Four Economic Dimensions (Pine and Gilmore, 1999)

Commoditiesresources from animals, mining or harvesting

Goods - Tangible

Services - Intangible

Experiences – Engaging individuals personally

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The Concept of Flow (Novak, Hoffman

and Yung, 2000)

Used to describe a state of mind experienced by people who are deeply involved in some activity.

Customers who experience flow on the Web perceive the online experience to be compelling.

Level of engagement created for customers.

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Customer Experiences

Customer experiences tend to be:

Sporadic

Subject to recency effects (recent impressions are better)

Customer initiated

Triggered by express needs- car, gift, complaints

Opportunities for dialogue (business nurturing customer opportunities)

Significant events – deadlines offers, contracts, new technology (iphone4, Android OS)

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Self-Service Technologies

Customers experience organizations largely through technology. (ATM, Banking, POS systems (M/C, VISA, InterAC)

What customers know about technology is conditioned by technology.

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Technologies Utilized for Self-Service

Telephone/IVR (Interactive voice response systems) – CSR

Internet

Interactive Kiosks

Video/DVD

Exercise: In small groups discuss your experiences with the above self service technologies?

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Why Customers Are Satisfied with Self-Service Technologies

Better than the Alternative – additional benefits provided by the self-service technologies (Such as saving time, saving money, easy to use).

Did Its Job – satisfaction with the capabilities of the technology.

Solved Intensified Need – urgent situation remedied through self-service technology use. (Maximising M/C bill)

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Why Customers Are Dissatisfied with Self-Service Technologies

Technology Failure – outright technical failure or the technology failed to do its job. (ATM)

Poor Design – includes technology design problems and service design problems.

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Why Customers Are Dissatisfied with Self-Service Technologies Continued

Process Failure – technology interface works, but here is a breakdown in the customer-technology interaction. (product ordered on Ebay but never received)

Customer-Driven Failure – failure occurred because of customer actions. (Forgetting PIN)

Exercise: Given that you are all IT professionals are there any current self service technologies that you think can be improved at a reasonable budget. Explain?

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Technology Strategies for Enhancing the Customer Experience

Why should businesses continually watch out for their technological strategies?

1. Eliminate Dissatisfiers as Top Priority

2. Differentiate Transactional and Relational Experiences

3. Design Interfaces for Usability, Navigation and Experience

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Technology Strategies for Enhancing the Customer Experience Continued

4. Correct the Obvious Problems with your IVR Systems

5. Enhance your IVR Systems with Technology

6. Create Opportunities for Memorable Satisfying Experiences

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1. Eliminate Dissatisfier’s as Top Priority

Technology failure is caused by:

- the Technology

- its Design

- the Underlying Business Process (Find bottlenecks)

- the Customer

The top three causes of failure should be a management focus.

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Ways to Eliminate Failure Causes

Technological Failurebuild in redundancy and the ability to self-monitor

Design Failurecustomers can be unsure how to proceed; assure uniform and consistent high-quality interfaces for all customer interactions.

Process Failureensure the process is well-engineered from beginning to end.

Exercise: From what you have learned from previous courses or from experience, given the above remedies to eliminate failure have you seen any corporation where there could be improvement?

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2. Differentiate Transactional and Relational Experiences

Transactional encounters should be automatic. (Booking’s, utility bill’s)

Web interfaces should have usable and easy to use navigation process.

Relational encounters can be ascertained by providing options on introductory Web pages. (Cry for help!) [i.e. Expedia helping customers to book flights, cars, hotels]

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3. Design Interfaces for Usability, Navigation and Experience

3 goals required for design of interfaces should be:

i. Usability to meet customer needsii. Navigation with easeiii. Customer experience

Design the technological interface to meld elements of absorption and immersion as well as active and passive participation.

Provide a challenge to arouse the customer but not frustrate them.

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4. Correct the Obvious Problems with your IVR Systems

Use caller-identification software (phone # & information)

Pass all information completely through the IVR session.(Account codes)

Don’t inform the customer that the session may be recorded to ensure quality unless you inform the customer how to request it not be recorded.

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Correct the Obvious Problems with your IVR Systems Continued

Provide information how long a wait is likely to be.

Provide sufficient capacity to queue all calls.

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5. Enhance your IVR Systems with Technology

Use the customer database to skip the first levels within the IVR system.

Design IVR trees from a customer not an organizational perspective.

Overall, make things easy!

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6. Create Opportunities for Memorable Satisfying Experiences

Excellent Service Recovery – the ability to rectify a failed encounter.

Customization and Flexibility are important determinants of satisfaction; technology provides the ability to be tailored to individual customer preferences.(Amazon.com, Expedia, Mypages)

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Create Opportunities for Memorable Satisfying Experiences Continued

Spontaneous Delight occurs when a customer has an unexpected and pleasing experience. (Expert systems help on this)

Use customer databases to send recognition rewards or apprise customers of new services and offerings tailored to their individual profile or even a Thankyou! 11-22

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Conclusion

IT is increasingly becoming the face of many organizations.

IT design is more than navigation and usability; it includes engaging the customer in experiences.

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