Waze - putting a nail in the coffin of conventional sat nav?

Waze is a mobile app offering satellite navigation services using GPS for its users on a free to use subscription. The service connects all waze users together into a navigational network where information is shared to optimise journey times and assist your fellow waze(rs) to avoid hold ups. The mobile app based solution attracted so much attention that Google decided it was worth over a billion dollars of their money to buy it out. Nice work and it remains the most successful emerging tech story to breakthrough from an Israeli start-up. The app itself has a fresh feel to it with gamification at its heart with candy rewards for activity. This is a bit of a sideshow from the real star of the show. What the device gives you is real time speeds for all the roads in your journey and alerts up ahead for areas of delays which have been flagged by fellow users. This really is social media navigation but it really works. Usual functions such as trip planning and alternate routes are offered but this speed update service for free is fabulous. Is there any need for a conventional satnav when you can use this? Epic customer experience delivered through your smart phone for free. 

Form versus Function - Does style in a user interface matter?

As the world of web aligns itself with Google a mobile first approach to websites becomes more common. This thinking pushes functionality to the forefront of site design with everything orientated to make the experience as simple, efficient and fast as possible for the user. 

But are we missing out with this military approach to digital interaction?

What value is there in beautiful designs that delight the eye and heart as much as the logical brain? As digital becomes a bigger part in all our lives I think the style of our solutions should play a larger part as people seek out enjoyment from the time they invest digitally as well as a route to making their lives more manageable. Each time you use a beautifully crafted site it has the opportunity to delight you and give you some relief from the functional lists and anonymous burger menus. Design and style need focus too if we are to provide epic customer experiences. 

When will the Internet of Things really start delivering on customer experience?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a buzz word describing the connectivity of devices such as homes, cars & people. In effect it means that connected devices will not be limited to phones, tablets and computers but opened up to everything from your fridge to your heart rate monitor. This explosion in connectivity is expected to mushroom over the next decade and depending on who's research you care to believe we could be looking at tens or hundreds of billions of devices all uniquely connected sharing data and status details. Brilliant - customers receive amazing experiences without having to lift a finger. But when will this "tomorrow's world" actually start to make a difference?  My 8 year old car doesn't currently let my garage know when it needs a service and books it in for me nor does it keep records of my commute comparing speeds and delays to suggest alternate routes to optimise my journey. Home heating systems seem to be demonstrating the most obvious lead in this field allowing your boiler to be wirelessly enabled allowing heating adjustments remotely which is great but hardly revolutionary. Arguably the TV anywhere services from Sky and Virgin media that allow remote viewing and trigger of recording services is more significant but still in its infancy. Expect to see big things soon but the real winners in this space are yet to emerge and grasp real value from this technology. From a customer experience perspective we  await with anticipation. 

The 4G mobile network change in customer experience

Each of the major mobile networks are now offering personal contracts using the latest 4G mobile networks. With numerous boasted improvements and compelling figures what is the experience really like for customers taking this next step in the mobile world?  4G offers improvements in data streaming to rival most home broadband speeds but has not reached significant coverage to ensure you can enjoy this wherever your mobile needs take you. Certainly in most of the major cities across the UK 4G is available but depending on which network you are on will depend on how much you really feel the improvement over 3G speeds. In simple terms 4G should be able to deliver 10mbps+ of download speed when in use which is plenty to stream video or download music or even movies in reasonable time. For most therefore as an experience that is likely to be plenty and against the 3G speeds a great improvement as that network has really started to show its age as the demands on it mean often people see poor capacity. Travelling further afield with 4G however and you are likely to see your handset switch to 3G or worse as coverage isn't 100%. So is 4G enough and worth having?  Increasingly yes is the answer as coverage improves and the 3G network shows its age. And what of 5G?  The next generation of network is due with us at the end of the decade and likely to deliver even faster speeds but it is not just focused on speed but on reliability and "sufficient" speed to meet needs so intelligently allocating bandwidth. Maybe with this reliability and speed will come dependable epic customers we all search for from our mobile. 

Netflix - enough of an experience for the money?

Netflix (www.netflix.com) is an American supplier of streamed media operating in Europe and across a number of regions outside the states. The company has been pioneering media streaming services for over a decade and competing directly with the Amazon on demand offering. Netflix is available through your browser or through mobile and tablet native applications allowing you to view TV and film on the go. The interface to access your content is a wonderfully rich experience with vertical and horizontal scrolling through their database of titles. In the background Netflix is running matching algorithms to learn your viewing patterns and suggest the most likely titles to suit your taste even predicting your ratings for these unwatched gems. Streaming is very reliable with high quality imagery uninterrupted by painful buffering issues. It even remembers where you are as you jump between platforms picking up on a movie started on your TiVo box that you finish watching on your iPad. The problem is not with the technology but the content. Much of the content served up is old or not mainstream popular picks. Leaving you floundering to find something to watch that grabs you. Netflix has a huge user base and should invest in first class content to maintain its market position. Epic experience in media streaming needs epic content. 

The patient experience of getting a new iPhone 6

As demand seems to have outstripped supply customers are finding their patience tested in waiting for a new iPhone. With lengthening delivery timescales on the 64gb models customers are getting poor service by the network carriers who are pointing the finger at their supplier while still collecting the costs of the new devices which they cannot be sure on when they will arrive. This tension is forcing customers to test the feedback loops available through the networks and independent suppliers.  Your most guaranteed route would appear to be with Apple direct and then securing your network after the event as Apple protect the delivery stream to their direct customers. Options for the weary customer?  Sit it out?  Switch to android or windows? Go big and switch to a 128gb model that seems to have greater availability due to the premium price?  General advice is keep pursuing your supplier and in the event they have taken money from you seek to agree an acceptable compensation for this. Epic customer experience on shiny new devices is unfortunately not easy to come by. 

Call centre queueing - making it worse than it should be

When resorting to the phone for customer interaction you are eager for personal connection and prompt support. You have elected to skip the digital channels for your own reasons and head for the conventional analogue channel no doubt deciding this is the path of least resistance to achieve your goals. You hope to avoid a multitude of options and steps between you and the right person, keeping your fingers crossed to connect direct with a well informed individual. Many companies recently seem to be delivering incredibly well in this area but I have found some of these gems of service couple this with a horrendous queueing system. Poor music is acceptable but not giving an up to date notification of your position in the queue is criminal. Finding you are 20th in the queue is never good but being left stranded for 30 minutes without any feedback means when you finally get through your mood leaves you in no position to talk rationally. Call centres need to keep customers as informed as possible, missing this out avoids an epic experience.