Going Nowhere Fast?

Studies show that even under perfect driving conditions, speeding over short distances leads to marginal savings in getting to your destination. Add a few traffic lights, a couple of curves, a bit of traffic or weather, and the time-saving benefits taper down to little or none. So why cutoff, tailgate, speed, and stress out for negligible returns at a higher risk?

Is doing something always better than doing nothing?

Take this example for instance: The Pepsi Challenge nearly killed Classic Coke when New Coke was introduced in response to Pepsi’s commercials. New Coke failed, and cost the company time and needless effort. Coca-Cola didn’t seem to grasp what loyalty they already had in their flagship product. Introducing a new product was unnecessary, and doing nothing would have been the better choice.

When is too much not enough?

For years, success for 1st and 2nd generation contact center platforms required more and more levels of routing priorities, simultaneous queuing options, announcements, and yes, even millisecond requirements for call to agent connections. Then a major financial firm discovered that multi-queuing led to agent hot seats and talent burnout, where high valued agents got the majority of the calls. Essentially, they were doing the “wrong things right” . . . classic unintended consequences.

Is faster better?

A.I. for contact centers portend to offer faster, deeper, and possibly unlimited number of algorithms. Massive numbers of points of insight and ways to speed up information flow may give the appearance of control. And if it doesn’t, it will surely feel like it will, or at least we can get stressed out trying!

Race car drivers often cite they can’t drive fast unless they can drive smooth – therefore knowing relevant concerns about your customer could be more important than how much information you have on your customer.

What have you done for me lately?

A major AI customer insight vendor claims to analyze millions of pairings in order to decide how to connect – Costco seems to do it with two … “Are you a member, and did you buy it here?”

How do you identify, qualify and link your customer to your value proposition? Look at your customer as they want to be seen and you’re in the strike zone.

To convert information into knowledge, focus on customer motivation and circumstance, those are the variables that humans remember. More elegantly stated would be “What did you do for me when I needed you most?”

Costco seems to get it – as they know that the “moment of truth” is when the customer returns a product and it’s a pleasant experience. Could the answer be so simple as to what is the easiest to understand will drive greater rewards and loyalty?

Too much information can turn out to be not enough if the customer doesn’t receive the benefits and your value proposition is not enhanced by the interaction. To take action, put on your customer hat and walk a mile in their shoes – you’d be surprised that what is important may be different – and less complex – than you think.

See Customer Journey Solutions for more insights on how Cisco can help you get to the heart of what matters to your customers at: