Using smart technologies for a six star service, written by Sydney Brouwer

Be where your customer is and make adjustments where possible

Sounds good, but unfortunately this does not appear to be possible everywhere in practice. As a company, you want to use as many communication channels as possible to properly serve your customer. But be careful, an incorrectly chosen channel strategy can cause severe irritation and even drive your customers to the competitor. What is the danger of too much channel control and how does this work against your customer?

Technology with human interaction

Sydney Brouwer: Accelerated digitalization is a solution and an addition to our society, as long as it goes hand in hand with human interaction. People are herd animals and need social interactions. That remains. Providing service is generally part of us as people. It is often the rules, protocols and systems that do not allow us to go the extra mile to ensure an optimal customer experience.

'Make smart technology work for you. Organize your processes in such a way that employees have the space to provide optimal service.'

Consciously put on customer experience glasses

I would occasionally advise organizations to consciously put on customer experience glasses. I may do that a little too much (it sometimes drives my girlfriend crazy), but it does ensure that you are aware of your own customer experience. The moment you do this, you will see more quickly what could be done differently in your own organization. An example: I just got back from vacation. We had booked a hotel in an old city center. When we had to pick up the key at reception and the employee told us that we had to go to the top floor, I could already imagine that this would be somewhat annoying…

Employees or customers first?

It was 29,5 degrees in the room. There was no air conditioning. The windows bordered on a square full of terraces. So noise. I walked downstairs and asked: ''Do you have another room? The windows cannot be opened because of the noise and there is no air conditioning.'' Unfortunately all rooms were occupied. "Do you have a mobile air conditioner, a fan?" Unfortunately, these were already in use by the other guests. And at that moment I looked over her shoulder into the office behind her. There was a fan whirring wonderfully. I point to it and look at her questioningly. "I'm not allowed to give that to customers, sir, this is for the staff." That gave me an insight. Customers do not come first here, employees come first. This is exactly why you should always put the customer first. Ultimately, after threatening to leave, we got the fan. But the bad impression had already been created.

Building a customer-oriented organization

This awareness of the customer experience you offer your customers is something that many managers find difficult. This is also evident from a published study by Capgemini. As many as 75% of the managers/companies surveyed say they are customer-oriented, only 30% of customers agree with this. That gap between those numbers? That's what I call a problem. It is important that managers have more contact with customers and do not just get their "insights" from reports or figures. Otherwise it is impossible to build a customer-oriented organization.

Make smart technology work for you

In one of my books I talk about providing Six Star Service. Service that is so good that your customer will remember it years later. This is not provided by computers and algorithms. This is about ensuring that an employee has the space in his agenda and his mind to spot opportunities and take that extra step. How do you do that? By making smart technology work for you. Organize your processes in such a way that the employee has the space to provide optimal six-star service.

Exceeding customer expectations in the digital customer journey

Just before the holidays I called an online store. She recognized my telephone number and the operator answered: "Are you Sydney Brouwer from Amersfoort?" I did not have to provide all kinds of zip codes and order numbers. She immediately paid attention to me and my problem. The easiest technology (and also quite old) available: caller ID. This technology existed even before answering machines. If we call each other and recognize each other immediately, why can't companies do this? That direct and complete attention to me and my problem, so that the employee has more time and space to spend those 4 minutes on me instead of finding out who I am. That's an example of what technology should do. But why is it so difficult to exceed expectations in that digital customer journey? Because we often completely remove the human aspect. A shame because this is not necessary, provided the technology is correct.

Two ways to win in the field of customer experience

1. An easy, fast, frictionless customer journey
2. Creating memories

And this has to be done together. Because if you were to focus solely on the first one, you would make customers loyal to the process and not to the organization. If a competitor has made the process even easier and less friction than you, he will switch. That is why we now buy from CoolBlue and Bol.com and not from Blokker. He doesn't care about coming back to the store. So it is clear that you make a difference with the creation of memories and the support you receive through the use of smart tooling so that you as an organization really have the space to create those memories.

* The translations on this website are provided by G-Translate from Dutch