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Doesn’t seem so crazy anymore. When you are Amazon, you have proven to your customers that you will provide them with great customer experiences. Consequently, you get to try new and different things, primarily because you have a relationship built on trust. The latest from them in a litany of new and different services is the Amazon Key. The kit includes an Amazon security camera, the Cloud Cam, and a compatible smart lock.
Starting at around $250, you can securely monitor an Amazon representative while he or she delivers packages inside your door, giving you more convenience and minimizing the opportunity for thieves to steal packages. Amazon stated they will provide an opportunity for service providers, such as maid services or dog walkers, to also access the Amazon Key, giving consumers greater security and flexibility to work with professionals.
Humach CEO, Tim Houlne, believes that both economics and customer convenience played a role in Amazon’s decision to provide this service.
“With the technology available to roll out this service, it makes sense that Amazon considered all avenues and decided that economically it made sense. The consumer has a camera to monitor, and the technology allows the customer to set a time frame, so they are in control of the access.”
“Furthermore, with the number of stolen packages on the rise, economically it makes sense for Amazon to try a service like this. It’s in alignment with the cultural shift consumers are making toward convenience while modernizing an old concept, like milk boxes or dairy delivery.”
Amazon has created a relationship with their customers built on trust, and while not everyone is on board with allowing an Amazon representative in their home to deliver packages, the fact that the organization feels it’s going to be accepted enough to try it speaks volumes for their overall customer experience and knowledge of their customer base.”
How well do you know your customer? The 2020 Customer gives you an action plan for meeting your customers where they want to be.
“Amazon obviously knows their customers well. They make a point of aggregating as much information as possible to improve the experience,” says Houlne. “Some may be concerned about the amount of data organizations are currently gathering; yet, customer behavior shows that they want the great experience. Now, the question becomes how do other organizations continue to improve their customer experience with the bar being set so high by companies like Amazon?”
Bridging the CX Gap
Amazon believes the Amazon Key program is worth the gamble, even with the potential for security and liability challenges. The decision was not made in a vacuum. They most likely reviewed the number of packages that are stolen and decided it was a viable solution.
If you are not Amazon, how do you test methods to improve your own customer experience without risking valuable resources or spending exorbitant amounts of money? Small, agile testing environments provide one solution.
“We recognized that most organizations have a need to incubate or test new methodologies to improve customer engagement and retention. However, they typically don’t have the resources or budget to do so,” said Houlne. “It was from understanding this need that Humach Labs was born.”
Humach Labs gives organizations a safe environment to test technology and processes without impacting their own resources. By utilizing Humach resources, but implementing in their own environment, organizations have an agile way of testing new ideas to potentially leapfrog ahead on their customer experience while minimizing risk.
“It’s really about the possibilities. You can review and test new ideas for your own organization in a secure way without major overhead,” said Houlne. “It brings a little bit of what Amazon is able to do internally to other organizations who are passionate about moving forward in improving their technology, processes and overall customer experience.”
Customers Demand It
There is an increasing level of sophistication among today’s consumers. They are aware of technology and services that make their engagement with you friction-free and expect that organizations are focused on improving customer experience. Since there is no going back, companies must think through how to best move forward to keep and attain market share.
“It starts with anticipating the needs of customers, then circumventing their need to reach out to you,” said Houlne. “Prescriptive and predictive offers lead to outstanding customer experience and will be the rule, rather than the exception, going forward.”
Organizations must spend time updating their customer journey map in order to dial into the various ways they can predict customer needs. It is important to understand how your customers want to receive communication from you and that the communication be timely and helpful.
“Often organizations make the process of customer journey mapping a difficult one, when in reality it does not have to be hard,” said Houlne. “Our clients have a way to quickly implement changes dictated by the customer journey map while testing solutions, ascertaining the viability for the organization and level of improvement it will make with regards to customer experience. This is a way they can change the game in their favor.”
