The Hard-and-Fast Rule of Customer-Facing Technology

There’s a Right Way & a Wrong Way to Implement New Technology

Isn’t it wonderful that you can use your bank’s mobile app to pay your bills from your phone?

Isn’t it super inconvenient when you call your bank and, before you can get someone to talk to you, you hear a recorded voice that instructs you to punch in a series of numbers?

Isn’t it wonderful that you can buy just about anything online?

Isn’t it super inconvenient when you have a question about a product you are trying to buy online, and you are forced to chat with a bot that is not programmed to answer your specific question?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your company offered your customers a new technological option to interact with your company, which made it easier for customers to do business with you?

Wouldn’t it be super inconvenient for your customers if you put a technological interface between your company and them that made it harder for them to do business with you? 

Are You Implementing Wonderful or Super Inconvenient Technology?

This leads to my “Hard and Fast Rule of Customer-Facing Technology: 

“Ensure that every piece of technology you put between you and your customers is for their convenience, not yours.”

That’s it. It’s that simple. 

Yes, airlines, banks, the electric company and the government have created technological interfaces that you are forced to deal with, and they seem to be doing just fine. These interfaces haven’t hurt their businesses.

But you are not an airline. And you certainly don’t want to provide customer service in the way the government does. Because your customers have options, and if you make it harder for them to do business with you, you will lose more money in the long run than you will save by delegating customer interactions to technology.  

My Rule for Customer-Facing Technology Helps You Manage the Dizzying World of Emerging Tech

Every month you are presented with new technological tools you can use in your business, and this pace is accelerating. You may be creating a customer portal. You may be using AI to help with customer communications. You may be using an auto-dialer to call large numbers of people’s phones. 

You need to evaluate every one of these options with one overriding criterion: Is this for the customer’s convenience, or ours? 

• If it’s for the customer’ convenience, do it. 

• If it’s for your convenience, and makes it harder for customers to do business with you, don’t do it. 

Yes, that new AI bot may help you reduce headcount in your customer service team. But will you lose more money by upsetting your customers?

Yes, that new automated invoicing system might streamline your accounting department’s operations. But will it irritate your customers?

When making a decision about a customer-facing technology, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Your perspective comes second.