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All it takes is a short trip on any one of our nation’s highways for motorists to begin wishing the future of the driverless car would arrive quicker.
As evidenced by our daily commutes, human drivers are subject to emotions, poor decision making, and distractions of everyday life that can lead us to be oblivious, aggressive, discourteous, and dismissive of basic traffic laws, so it’s hard to imagine that a bunch of robots could do any worse.
Google’s new driverless car — which has actually been a reality for nearly a decade now, and already has half a million miles worth of experience on the road, without a single accident, is only recently getting close to becoming commercially available. This automatic auto offers travelers the luxury of sitting back, reading the newspaper while the car does all the work.
After all, why grasp the steering wheel and work pedals yourself when you can let the real-life version of Knight Rider’s KITT get you safely from home to work, and back home again with no problems?
In fact, the recent prototype that Google unveiled doesn’t even have a steering wheel or pedals—or side mirrors, a sound system, or even a back seat (although commercial versions will likely feature these amenities). It looks like a hatbox on wheels, and it’s collection of advanced sensors can detect objects several hundred feet away. And if those sensors somehow are inaccurate, the Google car features has a soft, foam-like front end just in the small chance that it does mess up and tags a cyclist.
People are getting excited over the idea of not having to do the driving. Mankind’s aversion to doing things for themselves is what drives us to invent the impossible and the driverless car is the latest example.
So, what can marketers, entrepreneurs, and CEOs learn from the imminent popularity of a fully automated car? Easy: Automation is king.
Many companies understand this and make use of extensive marketing automation. Why shouldn’t they, when businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads? The real tragedy is that for many companies, the use of automation stops there. By taking advantage of automation in areas other than marketing, those same companies could be revolutionizing every aspect of the customer experience.
Here are a few thoughts on how your company could make use of automation to improve the customer experience beyond automated marketing:
Using automation to better customer experience doesn’t necessarily mean that the customers have to interact directly with the automation. That means that automation can be used to increase efficiency within your company ranks and that will in turn lead to a improved overall experience for the customer.
Internal automation can take many forms, from the production process all the way up to the way internal communications are handled (e.g. setting up rules in your Outlook or Gmail).
If there's a task that involves an accurately defined and often repeated process, then a bit of automation will help you save time, effort, and money. For example, if your legal department has to deal with constant contract approvals and revisions, or if regular approval processes generally consist of information being manually passed around between different levels, then maybe taking some of the human effort out of the equation by introducing thresholds.
You might not see how any of this could improve the customer experience, but the customer certainly will once the resulting savings and service-quality are passed on to them. Remember, when your company runs smoothly, the customer is happy.
Alex Bard, EVP of Salesforce.com has said that "The best customer service experience is one that never has to happen."
Now, whether you fully agree with the quote or not, you have to admit that it addresses a very real issue: Some customers aren’t always in the mood for for an emotional human connection when they’re attempting to get something done.
Those customers like to know that speaking to a human is available should the need arise, but generally all that they want is to complete their transaction and move on.
Getting in touch with a living company representative can be time consuming and awkward, and many customers will actually choose to cancel a purchase rather than seek assistance. In fact, 78% of customers have abandoned a transaction as a result of bad customer service.
Anything that can make customer service more efficient and streamlined, or even eliminate the need for it all together, will be appreciated on the other end.
Automation allows customers to essentially self-serve customer service via web tools such as an FAQ, community forum or knowledge base. These tools only work provided that your system is advanced enough to guide them through the entire process from start to finish, yet uncomplicated enough that they won’t end up screaming for help before they get there.
Just make sure that they have the option to ditch the automated system and work with a real person if they want to—not everyone is comfortable talking to robots.
When it comes to electrical systems, complexity is a wonderful thing, but only as long as that complexity stays below the surface. When it comes to direct customer interaction, complexity—or rather complicatedness—is the last thing you want.
The interface in which the customer interacts with should be automated in the sense that it should be completely intuitive. Though a click on a button may be taken for granted because of it's simplicity -- that click may trigger a powerful algorithm powering through fields and fields of data in order to accomplish that task.
Take the Google driverless car prototype for example; the entire onboard interface will consist of two buttons: “GO” and “STOP.” That's it. Those who use the vehicle won’t need a doctorate in computer science or engineering, and neither should your customers.
When dealing with apps, products, systems, websites, or anything else involved in the customer experience, any customer should be able to jump right in and know exactly what they’re doing. Automation can help them in this regard.
After all, if your system can take care of the complex issues on its own, then your customers will be able to just sit back and enjoy the ride, so to speak, only grabbing the wheel when they feel as though they’d like to get back in the driver’s seat.
With as long as society has been talking about the future possibility of robotic cars, it seems almost unbelievable that it is our generation that may actually see the dream become a reality. And as new advanced automation technology continues to seep into other areas of the lives of your customer base, make sure that your business isn’t left in the dust.
By allowing your systems to reach their full potential and take the stress and confusion of complication off of your customers’ shoulders (and the burden of repetition off of yours), you’ll improve the overall experience. The technology is available; it’s up to you to let it take the wheel.
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