Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying patience isn’t EVER a
virtue. Anyone with kids knows the importance of patience. It also helps with
investing (think long-term!), shopping (hold out for the best deal), golf (keep
your head down!), or any number of daily activities that test our collective
patience.
But in today’s business world – driven by consumers with
dramatically higher standards – too much patience can be a problem. Nowadays
people have completely different expectations for the companies they choose to
do business with. Customers today expect service that’s lightning quick,
excellent and accurate, personalized to their specific needs, and conveniently
integrated within their day-to-day life. In this world, being overly patient in
responding to these needs holds virtually no value.
It’s no secret that digital technology and social media have
revolutionized the game. Companies like Apple, Amazon, Google and many others
have raised the bar by completely transforming the way people do business and
interact with one another. In turn, consumer preferences are much different
than they were 10, five or even two years ago.
Think about yourself and your own preferences. Do you go
from store to store looking for a certain product? Do you go to the bank and
wait in line? Do you pick up the phone and stay on hold with service inquiries?
Do you even use your phone to make phone calls? The list goes on and on. We’re
all becoming less patient.
Impatience has had vast ramifications on the business
landscape as the markets companies operate in change by the minute. The good
news is that it has forced everyone to be better and faster at what they do.
New companies are “born digital” (i.e. born without the patience gene), but
established companies have also had to overhaul the way they think and operate
– all in the name of speed and customer value.
Another way to think about it – if your business fails to
listen to customer feedback in real time; if you fail to act on that feedback;
if you’re not transparent about your will and desire to change; if you don’t
rally your employees around the importance of speed and innovation; and if
you’re not constantly innovating your products & services on behalf of your
customers – then your business is likely marching toward irrelevance or worse.
Let’s take a look at how much things have changed over the
years.
- Computing
Power: The
scale of change here is incredible. Today many new automobiles come with
100 million lines of code[i]. A cell phone today has the same computing
power that a regular desktop computer had in 2005, just nine years
ago[ii]. And this one is my favorite – “Your cell phone today has more
computer power than all of NASA back in 1969, when it placed two astronauts
on the moon.”[iii] Digital usage continues to grow exponentially, and one
big byproduct is an incredible amount of data that companies have at their
fingertips. In fact, it’s been stated that 90% of the world’s data has
been generated in the past two years[iv]. Today companies use this “Big
Data” to serve their customers with much greater speed, precision and
personalization. It’s happening all around us every day.
- Quality
Assurance: Automation
has completely changed the game here for companies and customers. Ten
years ago it would take a small army of people to test a given product or
service…and they would only be able to touch a small fragment of all the
different permutations and possibilities. Today, through automation and
simulation tools, companies can execute hundreds of thousands of test
cases in hours with little human intervention. The end result is less risk
to the company, a better customer experience, and much faster product and
service deployment.
- Customer
Testing: The
same goes for testing products and services with customers. Ten years ago,
if you wanted to understand how customers used their home computer to buy
things (something they likely do almost every day now), you’d schedule
customers to come into a user testing facility to see what they would do.
Nowadays, you can get many more customers to try out your product from the
comfort of their own home and get more accurate feedback much more
quickly. Not to mention it costs less.
- Customer
Service Operations: It
used to be that the predominant way to get service was to pick up the
telephone and wade through many layers of prompts to self-direct to a
specific department. Today a customer does a large percentage of their
service online, and when they need intervention they can easily click a button
to initiate an online chat or phone call from their mobile device.
Customers no longer have patience for multi-layered prompting systems, and
companies now use data to route customers to a qualified service associate
more directly.
- Customer
Communications: Companies
used to proactively communicate through the mail (forms and letters),
telephone, TV and print advertising or traditional print media. Today
there’s a significant number of ways to deliver targeted and actionable
messages to customers – through the Web, e-mail, video, in-person
appointments, telephone, seminars & events, webcasts, social media and
blogs, creative marketing, and yes, snail mail when appropriate. The key
difference is that today customers can get what they want, when they want
it, and in the method that integrates most seamlessly with their daily
life. It’s a faster and more dynamic way of communicating and it helps to
create a stronger relationship between the customer and company.
- Employee
Communications: The
same can be said for communicating with employees. Years ago you reached
your people through letters and memos, conference calls, and occasional
events and roadshows. Those channels still work, but today companies also
leverage Intranets, social media platforms, digital billboards, video
conferences, virtual events and other technologies – all in the name of
engagement, connectivity and the delivery of targeted messaging. This has
a compound impact on the speed and effectiveness of an organization as it
allows employees to do their jobs better and faster.
We could keep going here across most disciplines of a
business. The world today has become significantly faster, more mobile, and,
yes, more impatient.
Given the proliferation of technology and the overall pace
of change – the next 1-5-10 years will move dramatically faster than previous
periods. Customers adapt quickly. Each generation rapidly adopts new technology
and creates the new normal. That trend won’t stop and will only accelerate.
So ask yourself – are you moving fast enough? Are you truly
listening to your customers? Do you have an aggressive yet flexible innovation
pipeline? And are you positioned to meet the evolving preferences of younger
generations?
If the answers to those questions are no, you’re probably
being too patient…
