I read Rick Man’s post with interest recently. Having come from the software world, I know a thing or two about minimum product viability - both by design and by error :)
I started thinking how this might apply to social service. You hear talk sometimes about “minimum viable customer experience”. This always sounded like some sort of SEAL Team Ops semantics to me. What the heck is a minimally viable customer experience anyway? Is zero support viable? Why not. Giffgaff does it.
How about only providing email support? Phone? How can we know what customers consider “minimally-viable”? Would they be honest or not? Why not simply ask them?
I think too often companies design social service around what’s convenient for them — their infrastructure, their processes, their legacy, and yes, too often enough, their internal politics.
When in fact it would probably be more efficient - and certainly more genuine - to go out there and tell people up-front: look, we can’t be everything to everyone. And we either can’t or don’t wish to be like Dell, Apple, Amazon, or Virgin. Additionally, we feel it’s more sensible to invest in a single channel and really knock it out of the ballpark. So pick a channel, and we’ll commit to being the best at it.
Did you say phone? Fine. We’ll invest in phones and have the best freaking phone support you ever met. You want email? Deal. We’ll invent the most amazing way to do email support. Chat? Facetime? Skype? Carrier pigeon? You got it. We’ll be the best, most efficient, most innovative company in that single channel. And nothing more. For now (that being the key phrase)…
Deep down I think that’s a deal most frustrated customers would probably sign off on. Matter of fact, it’s been proven. I know I would! How about you? Fair enough?
Under-promise. Over-deliver. Stay social my friends :)
According to this Luxury Daily post, we have breaking news. Making customers happy is good for business!
“Brands must put consumer needs, ease of transaction and joy from the purchase at the center of their business model to compete in today’s market and to raise profits, according to an executive at Forrester’s Customer Experience Forum 2012.”
You’re kidding me. You need an official “Customer Experience Forum” to figure that one out? Okay, okay, snarky = bad, but I mean come on :) Because every so often you hear about research and analysis having produced such groundbreaking discoveries:
- The product or service must meet the needs that the consumer has
- The product or service needs to be easy to obtain and use
- The experience needs to be enjoyable for the consumers
In other words, don’t sell people junk and treat them like crap in the process. Humm. What a concept.
Frank Eliason once put it best when describing Apple’s success: “People like their product, they like their customer experience. It’s as simple as that.”
Social media won’t magically improve your product or your customers’ experience. It’s just a bunch of tools with creative, passionate people at the helm. And if you don’t have the basics, you just don’t got ‘em.
Social media doesn’t replace common sense and the old “Don’t do unto others…” adage.
