Martech.org just published a thoughtful piece about how brands integrating significant digital components need to be thoughtful about how they may be impacting the real-life experience.
A particularly spot-on point:
It’s important to remember that the need for human touch varies throughout the customer journey. If you just want to quickly check your bank balance, for example, you’ll probably just use your app. If you’re moving all your possessions across the country, on the other hand, you’ll no doubt want to talk to a real human for peace of mind.
Some key points from the article:
- Be mindful of rational and emotional needs. Bear in mind that so much of what you do with technology is facilitate human interaction and engagement.
- Not everything should be digital. It may be more efficient, but you could cause you to lose some of what makes you special.
- Even great tech can have unwanted consequences, even when it works as designed. As the article says, “We must be mindful of what technology actually brings to the customer experience and what it may be taking away.”
Ultimately, the article’s point is that we need to find the right balance and we need to keep an eye on our customers to know when we’ve taken our technology a step too far.
