Customer expectations are outpacing technological innovation. We can all think of instances where companies, despite exploding technological power, are failing to keep up with rising customer standards. In recent years, many of us have probably found ourselves asking rhetorical questions such as: “Why do I have a thousand shows to watch, but can’t organize my favorites ‘just so’? Why is it so much work to analyze my budget, while my credit card has almost all the information needed to help me finish the job? Why don’t I have a unified travel portal that saves all my preferences, my wish list and my rewards memberships as neatly as I organize the songs in my music library?”
4 Principles for Improving Customers’ Digital Experience
Customer expectations are outpacing technological innovation. Here’s how to close the gap.
March 10, 2023
Summary.
Companies, despite exploding technological power, are failing to keep up with rising customer standards. Customer service technology should build a customer dialogue and foster deeper relationships, just as the best human customer service representatives do. And then it should go beyond, using emerging technology to accentuate and improve what a human agent can physically accomplish. This is what we call “digital empathy.” teThe keys are to offer customers more control, keep the technology so intuitive it feels mindless, provide visibility at points of customer agitation, and blur the divides of the digital and physical domains.
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Customer Focus Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Customer Focus. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
Learn how to keep your customers—and their most important needs—front and center.
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New!
HBR Learning
Customer Focus Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Customer Focus. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
Learn how to keep your customers—and their most important needs—front and center.