By Bharathwaj V., Chief Marketing Officer at 24/7 Customer

We are in the age of the second internet, a time where social media, HTML 5 and the battle of web versus apps are its hallmarks. In this second internet, even the best websites fail to meet the service expectations of consumers. Since the advent of the internet, company websites have been primarily designed for sales, with less attention on service. Companies invest a great deal of time into website design, primarily to attract and convert customers. They actively track consumer behavior to build a profile, finding out the buying preferences of consumers, and when, where, why and how to capitalize on the needs of the intelligent consumer.

However when it comes to service, consumers do not get the same level of engagement online. The “service moment of truth” for the consumer is when self-service transactions fail to address consumer needs. The answer has been traditional email, chat, and frequently asked questions (FAQs). When consumers cannot find specific answers online, they end up reaching out to the call center where they next encounter the interactive voice response (IVR) challenge. Our question needs to be: how can companies make the service experience more effective and efficient online?

To answer that, one must look at digital service experience design. Imagine three scenarios where you walk into a hotel looking for the restaurant. In the first scenario, if you cannot find the restaurant you go to the concierge desk and ask for help. You are then guided to the restaurant. That is the era of reactive service on websites. Examples include static chat buttons, FAQs, and customer service forms.

In the second scenario, the concierge notices you are looking around so he/she approaches, asking if you need any help. This is proactive service such as pop-up chat on websites. It is better, but still not enough.

Why? Because consumers today demand more predictability - from getting predictive answers to search queries to knowing the weather by the hour. Consumers are surrounded by the immersive experience of smartphones and tablets, and expect to be treated intelligently. It does not make sense for someone who tries to resolve a question using the iPad and instead the 1-800 number flashes asking him/her to call in! In essence, the consumer demands a better experience - a predictive experience.

Welcome to the era of predictive experiences that consumers seek. These are new experiences that predict consumer service preferences, treating consumers uniquely in a personalized fashion and resolving issues. Well known early examples of predictive experiences include personalization and recommendation engines from Amazon and Netflix, and Google’s predictive search. These companies have been conditioning consumers to expect a better experience. If Google can predict what you are searching for, and if Amazon and Netflix can provide you with recommendations, consumers today expect that all online services must be able to predict and solve their issues.

Cut back to the third scenario. As you walk into the hotel looking around, the hotel rep walks up to you, informing you that he/she can guide you to the restaurant! You are pleasantly surprised and are wondering, “How did he/she specifically know that I came to the hotel and am looking for a restaurant?”

Although intriguing, some people may find this a bit strange. They may think, “Why does this person know my reason for coming to the hotel?” When it comes down to it, the purpose of prediction is to be able to identify the right issue for the right person and provide service at the right time. Predictive experiences are learning experiences, so if a consumer does not accept this experience for whatever reason, then this behavior is identified and the system does not interact with the person the next time. As can be seen with the earlier examples, predictive technologies have been used more for customer attrition and retention, but never in real time interactions of predicting service needs before and during an interaction. This is a service with a design paradigm, similar to how a better ATM experience moved people away from bank branches.

It is the turn of companies to implement this in their online service experience design. They must look into how to leverage the power of data to treat the service journeys of consumers as uniquely as they treat the sales journeys, and redesign the service experience.

Companies that adopt this genre of predictive online experiences will redefine the future of customer service. And for those who don’t, even the third internet cannot help.