Why was it that insurance claim, that refinancing, that new account opening, that complaint to the phone company last year was so awkward, so labor-intensive, so snail-paced, and so “last century”?
Well there may be light at the end of the tunnel. I would suggest two things that any organization can do quickly to engage its customers better.
First: multichannel engagement. Simply open up a variety of channels with your customers so they can engage with your company via paper mail, email, SMS text, social network, fax or on the Web, and–just as important–via their device of choice, whether smartphone, tablet or PC. Yes, some customers may prefer to engage using paper mail, fax or multi-function peripheral (MFP). In fact, no matter how Twitter-friendly and social-networked we may be, there are occasions when we must send documents by paper mail, such as original passports, drivers licenses, or embossed marriage certificates with apostille certification¹. There is good reason, and many competitive advantages, to allow customers to engage in any business process using whichever channel and device they prefer. As customers, we like that.
Second: don’t force your customers to follow an inflexible process. Henry Ford redefined an industry by standardizing vehicle production, right down to “black is our only available color”. But the industry did not declare victory when Ford mastered the routine. Organizations need to move forward as the automotive industry did, providing flexibility so customers can customize their car at the time of order.
Many industries are increasingly mastering the unpredictable, not just the routine. As a customer, I prefer to deal with those flexible organizations during my purchasing decisions – for my car, my insurance, my mortgage, my phone and internet services. A lot of us would. And it’s our choice.
I have expanded on this topic in the book How Knowledge Workers Get Things Done in the chapter titled “How Adaptive Case Management Drives Better Customer Engagement“. The chapter discusses the necessary role of adaptive case management in enabling more responsive, flexible and effective customer engagement in an era when the rising power of the individual demands a new architecture of engagement for customers and employees alike. Let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing your views.
¹It took me a vacation day and a Kafkaesque tour of downtown Manhattan government offices to get an apostille certification, just one of the many arcane paper documents deemed essential by government bodies.