If you’re anything like me, your morning probably looks something like this: wake up and check the Nest app to make sure the baby is still sleeping, turn off the house alarm in the app, take out the dogs and settle in for 10 minutes of meditation with a reflection app. Then I talk to Alexa to get the weather and top news. I turn on Spotify as I get ready and then go to my workout at Orange Theory, where a heartrate monitor tracks my progress. My entire workout is gamified through technology, which pushes me to work harder.
My entire morning is packed with technology—iPhone apps, voice-activated assistants and IoT-connected devices. But it doesn’t stop there.
I grab an Uber through the app and head into the city. On the drive, I tell Siri to text my husband. My entire day is powered by technology, and it makes my life so much easier. I’m sure you’ve experienced this in your own life, as these beautiful technology experiences help make our personal lives flow much more smoothly.
But then something happens when we get to work. Instead of seamless experiences with technology, we’re often faced with clunky old machines and outdated software. Too many employees don’t have access to consumer-grade technology at work, which can be frustrating and inefficient. How can we expect employees to deliver amazing customer experiences if they don’t have the right tools themselves?
Customer experience is all about using technology to improve customers’ lives. That means leveraging consumer-grade technology from our personal lives. The technology we use every day outside of work is designed to be frictionless and easy, but that often doesn’t translate to employees or the overall customer experience. In order to create a strong customer experience, brands need to apply the experiences from their personal lives to the technology they build for customers and employees. It’s easy to get an answer from Alexa or to find personalized music recommendations on Spotify. Customer experience in all areas should also be that easy.
In our technology-driven world, all companies should aim to create frictionless experiences at work and for their customers. Technology is a powerful tool that should drive every interaction anyone has with the brand.
Blake Morgan is a keynote speaker, futurist and author of “More Is More.” Sign up for her weekly customer experience newsletter here.