What can you learn from the quality of the Amazon customer experience and the magic of the iPhone user experience ... to improve your customer's experience?
The two influential drivers of the "new normal" in customer experiences are Amazon.com and the iPhone/iPad. They have not only emerged as critical online purchasing portals for millions of consumers, they have also provided customers with a specific sense of entitlement ... an expectation other marketers are now obligated to fulfill if they wish to remain competitive.
The Amazon Standard: Customers expect meaningful personalization. Whenever you log in at amazon.com, or read messages from the site, you realize that the on-line retailer knows what you looked at last time, knows what you are likely to want to look at this time, and knows what you will consider buying next. This sense of instant, easy access to the most relevant products and services is now a core expectation of on-line consumers.
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To meet the Amazon Standard: Strive to ensure that your enterprise's online experience conveys an understanding, not only of past purchases, but also of present tastes and predispositions. BtoB and BtoC marketers now have to at least match Amazon!
Per our recent Voice of Customer, (VoC), research findings:
⇒ Many BtoB decision-makers use Amazon as an important reference point regarding expectations for BtoB personalization.
⇒ Online customers now say things like: “When I go to the Amazon site, I feel like they know what I like.” You should, too.
To meet the iPhone/iPad Standard: Make sure your user experience is both intuitive.... and fun. The iPad and its smaller cousin, the iPhone, created an instantly enjoyable, totally accessible user experience. Apple used this operating environment to dominate categories and change popular culture. They also raised the bar for all of us. If our user experience isn't as enjoyable, simple, and lightning-fast as these devices, customers will seek other options.
⇒ How much has the landscape shifted? A recent online poll at todaysiphone.com found that 70% of respondents would now rather give up alcohol for a week than give up their smartphone; 22% of respondents would rather give up their toothbrush for a week than give up their smartphone. 33% said they would prefer to give up sex for a week.
⇒ Scary, or sobering, depending on your point of view. Either way, ignoring new user expectations for short-term engagement and enjoyment – expectations arising from the “iRevolutions" of the past few years – would be a big mistake.
To maximize the quality of your customer experience, challenge your enterprise to meet both the Amazon Standard and the iPhone/iPad Standard.
