Page 294 - The Design Thinking Playbook

In the customer interaction, what are the challenges entailed in
the digital customer life cycle? TRADITIONAL
CUSTOMER LIFE CYCLE
In the past, the customer life cycle was more sequential and limited to a few channels—from perceive,
inform, and order to install, use, and pay all the way to support and termination. It was usually done
through only a few traditional channels with a (sometimes accepted) break in the media and the expe-
rience between the individual steps. As Peter has learned from a panel of experts at his alma mater in Discover
Munich, the customer of today moves through a broad variety of channels, sometimes concurrently; skips What solutions are there
for my problem?
steps; and continues them in other channels, frequently with other devices. Digitization leads to new forms
of interaction between the company and the customers (and between customers) and makes it possible to
design more holistic experiences. These challenges and opportunities must be addressed in the design of Ponder
Use What solution variants
customer experiences. How can I are there?
Identifying the customer concern and thus the phase of the customer life cycle in an interaction as early use it even better?
as possible constitutes one of the challenges. This is why it is essential for Peter’s employer to collect the
Buy
interaction data on in-house digital channels, classify the customer to the extent possible, and allow and Which variant is best
use the data in the interaction. for me?
The earlier the customer’s reason for contact can be identified, the better the customer can be guided in
the channel universe and the better the experience can be shaped. Assuming that the customer contacts
the company in the event of a complex fault, the issue is not to prioritize the customer chat but to choose a DIGITAL CUSTOMER
channel that is more appropriate for the processing of the concern, such as video telephony or a technician LIFE CYCLE
visiting the customer at home.
With the increasing digitization of business processes, there are also more and more problems, which
Online Print advertising
the customer can easily and without great effort process on his own on the customer portal. In addition, shopping
the company itself today has long ceased to be the only contact point for the customer along the entire Read
customer life cycle. In fact, companies need to involve external value-creation partners. Customers can turn Read
to communities, for instance, to have their problems solved. The Swiss IT company Swisscom, for instance, reviews
App
integrates both the online customer forum and the tech-savvy offline community of “Swisscom Friends” in download
the design of the experience.
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When designing customer interactions in the digital life cycle, it continues to be crucial not only to allow social media
Watch video on
for switching channels but to design the switch as an integrated experience. This includes making custom- the mobile
er processes independent of channels, so a seamless switch is possible without information and status phone
loss and without the customer having to state his problem more than once. The customer effect score or Shopping on
the mobile phone Compare
“easy score” can be used as an indicator here. These metrics show from the point of view of the customer Blog online
how easy the company has made it for the customer to resolve his problem. Ideally, this indicator should Watch
be taken into account in the iterative development of customer experiences as early as at the beginning of tutorial
customer tests.
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