The optimism of #Purpose & science of #design in forging #digital customer experiences! Opinions my own!

…where rubber meets the road.

It doesn’t get more downstream than this.

Private banking, wealth management and luxury brands such as Chanel has shown us the way.

Make that Apple too, since we are willing pay significantly more for the same set of ‘features’ other phone computer makers have been touting for years. The end of Samsung is nigh. We Asians don’t really get brand equity IMHO. Alibaba, RenRen, and other double syllable Chinese brands are successful copycats, with the advantage of scale and very large domestic market. Nothing wrong with that. 

The genius bar, the geek squads, they all know how to amplify customer experience delivering the best service designs and cash in. The next banking hall made of granite, marble and other fine stones you walk into, remember how much of that went into impressing you so you’d part with more of your hard earned dollars.

Regardless, sales as a function has always been the focal point of well run businesses, banks or not. With increasing focus on digital and omnichannel, we ask ourselves how the sales force is going to evolve.  People still buy from people, and customer trust is becoming a quintessential fulcrum of customer experience. 

Humans are so complex. Getting a consistent experience across is difficult. But in our inconsistencies, we find so much potential for customer delight. Magical moments that only humans can impart, and appreciate. 

The quantum of deals closed by the human salesforce must increase, and the nature, increasingly complex. Solving for customer needs must evolve into solving for customer aspirations. There will be lines drawn in the sand, what’s transactional, what’s self-serviceable and what’s “complex“, that only a human sales rep can undertake. Sure, the salesforce can be augmented, sometimes even supplanted with tablets,  apps and kiosks, but the salesforce must remain true and echo the culture of the brand. It all boils down to trust. Trust is something that’s cemented between people, human beings. Technology as we know, only facilitates that. 

My point is, perhaps what needs to be done, for the greatest magnitude of return, is installing sales discipline. Installing scientific sales discipline even. Everything Big Data, Cloud, Real-time, Digital, Omni, IOT, M2M, SaaS .. (the list goes on )..that we’ve talking about, the Bernoulli principle applies. The weakest link, where rubber meets road.  If we sort out the salesforce, the amplifier effect is tremendous. A galvanised platoon is cringe worthy with battle trance and war chants that can be heard from miles away. The problem statement can be 1. improve customer experience 2. improve targeted marketing 3. increase sales 4. etc., my view is that the salesforce (and the extended staffed channels – contact center) plays a significant, if not the most important, role in what success looks like. 

Case in point: choosing between a top (disciplined, “average” farmer like) salesforce vs 1. supreme leads and targeting upstream by marketing 2. sales team full of “eagles” with egos 3. digital mantra for self-service, online sales: I would always choose the legion of “average” team players. Many a sales training call them farmers and journeymen; but they practice the hallmarks of sales discipline. 

But so much has to be done, to feed them to rally a common cause, to train. All very human problems, when they leave us, after being trained. But a necessary investment, possibly the most important, for organizational success.