According to Forrester’s 2017 CX Index, customer experience quality plateaued or declined for most industries and companies allegedly due to the fact that “CX initiatives had too little clout to force meaningful change.” You see – consumers are screaming bloody murder because their expectations for experiences are not being met.
“In 2018”, the report goes on to say, “consumer expectations will continue to outpace companies ability to invent experiences”. Yeesh. People can’t come up with their own experiences? They need to rely on companies to do it? Products? “Digital transformation is necessary to close the gap between customer expectations and deliver individual experiences at scale.” That’s odd. I’ve spent months of my life on hold and waiting in line. When I make an insurance claim, I have difficulty determining who I’m speaking with – the provider, a call center, the wrong number? I sit and stare at my phone with steam coming out of my ears as content loads and loads and loads and loads, then buffers and buffers and buffers and buffers. I incessantly hit zero for a “representative” or tell a Chatbot to get lost enough times before it puts me in touch with a real person. “Contact us by email”. You get the picture.
I’ll tell you what the real problem is; it’s not that customers are so unreasonable that technology can’t help companies cope, it’s that technology is such a thorn in everyone’s side that they can’t cope with companies. 60% of executives believe they are behind on their “digital transformation” but really Digital Transformation may actually be the problem – and if you admit that you risk being labeled “old fashioned”. Well I know a lot of people that are “old fashioned”.
Just give me good service, PLEASE. That’s all I ask. Don’t try and push an app because I already have 25 of them on my phone that I don’t use. Don’t ask me for feedback or email me or send me a personalized ad at the right place and time or ask me to fill out a survey or how my customer experience was. If I’m still a customer you’ll know how it was. Companies are wasting their time and energy trying to engage. Isn’t the colossal flop of “conversations with brands” on Social Media or the biggest boycott in human history by way of ad blocking proof enough that people DO NOT want to interact much more beyond seeing or hearing a public notification about who you are (Branding) and then having you be available if the it breaks?
Our CX goes beyond individual petty dealings with non-stop ads on all devices, endless choice, confusion, multi-tasking and the emotional labor and fatigue associated with it all. As we become more conscious, we become more aware of how corporations are impeding our evolution to a new consciousness. They don’t respect our privacy. They could care less about over prescribing Ritalin and Opioids. They’ll continue to make AR-15’s and stores will continue to sell them. We despise violent video games and gore. We’re addicted to demoralizing social media and detest mass media for amplifying vacuous stupidity and ignorance. We’re sick of colossal waste and rapacious greed. As if all of this weren’t enough, most of us are over-socialized nervous wrecks to begin with.
We’re far from dissatisfied.. we’re very, very frustrated.
