Digital processes are very much in demand but need to be easy for a non-digitally native generation to use.
It was the American writer and technologist Marc Prensky who first coined the term ‘digital native’ to describe an individual who grew up in the information age and is therefore naturally conversant with computers, mobile phones and social media. They are not to be confused with their typically older digital colleagues who grew up in a world dominated by television and newspapers long before the concept of the Internet was even imagined.
It is for digital natives that most service providers have developed ways in how best to interact with their customers. The idea of self-serve – a concept that would have been considered the definition of poor customer service to a late adopter of digital technology – is increasingly the norm, and the height of good customer service to their native counterparts.
Self-serve has a great deal going for it. It allows consumers to interact at a time that is convenient for them rather than the service provider. It means, for example, they are no longer dependent on office hours to perform a simple task. Being able to interact digitally also allows the consumer to avoid face-to-face and or personal contact which can be difficult at the best of times but especially awkward when dealing with a sensitive and emotional subject like death.
From a business perspective giving customers a digital option has obvious cost advantages in being more time efficient and requiring fewer staff. It also helps reduce operator error and enhances accuracy since the data is being inputted by the consumer themselves and not a third party.
For digital natives such platforms tend to be a breeze. For late adopters, however, the experience is rather more hit and miss. It is not unusual for a late adopter to abandon a digital process half-way through, and if service providers have made a mistake in recent times it is in pushing through digitally-led solutions that have not been properly tested with an older audience in mind.
In their desire to embrace the digital age some have perhaps gone too far too quickly and left the older generation behind and even untrusting of online platforms. There is a sense that the process is less about customer experience, and more about company profit.
In an age when everything is now through an App – from paying for your parking to ordering a pizza – it is important that we don’t lose sight of what really matters, especially in areas that are especially sensitive. Customer service is about doing right by your customer, first and foremost, and if that means also doing right by your business then that’s a bonus. But when we’re dealing with the difficult process of notifying a death, we have to be sure that the service we are providing is completely focused on the customer experience.
Phil Hickson is SVP, Global Partnerships at The Estate Registry
