High-Tech Touchpoints Are Changing Customer Experience

高科技接触点正在改变客户体验

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Apple launched the iPod in 2001 with the mission of “putting 1,000 songs in your pocket.” Fast forward two decades, and L’Oreal is taking a step toward transforming cosmetics by enabling women to carry 1,000 shades of lipstick in their purse. The key is a connected device that prints lipstick for its Yves Saint Laurent line. Customers upload a photo of their outfit to the YSL app, which generates a few colors to match. After using augmented reality to finetune the colors to get exactly the shade they desire, the customer presses a button, and the device prints a few drops of the lipstick.

苹果公司在2001年推出了iPod，其使命是 "将1000首歌曲放入你的口袋"。快进20年，欧莱雅正在迈出改变化妆品的一步，使妇女能够在她们的钱包里携带1000种色调的口红。关键是一个连接设备，为其伊夫-圣洛朗系列打印口红。顾客将他们的服装照片上传到YSL的应用程序中，该应用程序会生成一些颜色来匹配。在使用增强现实技术对颜色进行微调以获得他们想要的颜色之后，顾客按下一个按钮，设备就会打印出几滴唇膏。

What L’Oreal accomplished reflects more than engineering prowess. It reflects a deeper understanding of how the intersections of advanced technologies and customer touchpoints are creating powerful customer experiences (CX) that boost satisfaction in ways that were either unimaginable or unfeasible for most companies a decade ago.

欧莱雅的成就不仅仅反映了工程能力。它反映了对先进技术和客户接触点的交叉点是如何创造强大的客户体验的更深层次的理解，这些体验以十年前大多数公司无法想象或无法实现的方式提高满意度。

Despite all the buzz around the concept of omnichannel, most companies still view customer journeys as a linear sequence of standardized touchpoints within a given channel. But the future of customer engagement transforms touchpoints from nodes along a predefined distribution path to full-blown portals that can serve as points of sale or pathways to many other digital and virtual interactions. They link to chatbots, kiosks, robo-advisors, and other tools that customers — especially younger ones — want to engage with.

尽管围绕着全渠道的概念有很多讨论，但大多数公司仍然将客户旅程视为一个特定渠道内标准化接触点的线性序列。但是，未来的客户参与将接触点从预定的分配路径上的节点转变为全面的门户，可以作为销售点或通往许多其他数字和虚拟互动的途径。它们与聊天机器人、信息亭、机器人顾问和其他客户--尤其是年轻客户--希望参与的工具相连接。

But the mere existence of these groundbreaking interactions is only part of the story. Our recent survey of 6,200 customers in China, France, and the United States uncovered seven CX factors that directly influence customer satisfaction. The first four — convenience, choice, navigation, and payments — are indispensable. That is, the presence or absence of these factors determines whether a customer judges a particular experience as good or bad. Think of them as table stakes. The remainder — ambiance, expertise, and touch-and-feel — amplify the baseline level of satisfaction. While their presence boosts satisfaction from “good” to “very good” 70% of the time, their absence turns a “bad” experience into a “very bad one” 89% of the time.

但这些突破性互动的存在仅仅是故事的一部分。我们最近对中国、法国和美国的6200名客户进行了调查，发现了七个直接影响客户满意度的因素。前四个--方便、选择、导航和支付--是不可缺少的。也就是说，这些因素的存在与否决定了客户对某一特定体验是好是坏。可以把它们看作是赌注。其余的因素--氛围、专业技术、触摸和感觉--会放大满意度的基准水平。在70%的情况下，它们的存在会将满意度从 "好 "提高到 "非常好"，而在89%的情况下，它们的缺失会将 "不好 "的体验变成 "非常不好"。

Alibaba’s Freshippo chain, which comprises more than 300 high-tech grocery stores, illustrates these effects. Launched in China in 2015, Freshippo provides fully automated stores that combine physical and digital experiences in a single environment. In-store shoppers “add” items to “shopping carts” using their smartphones. Within the carts, users can access information about the items, and they can pay for the items without support from a clerk. The stores are also fulfillment centers for orders that are placed entirely online. Some 36% of younger consumers gave the store the highest satisfaction rating, versus the average of 16% across all grocery stores.

阿里巴巴的Freshippo连锁店，包括300多家高科技杂货店，说明了这些效果。Freshippo于2015年在中国推出，提供完全自动化的商店，在单一环境中结合了实体和数字体验。店内购物者使用智能手机将物品 "添加 "到 "购物车"。在购物车中，用户可以访问有关商品的信息，他们可以在没有店员支持的情况下为商品付款。这些商店也是完全在线下订单的履行中心。约有36%的年轻消费者对该店给予了最高的满意度，而所有杂货店的平均满意度为16%。

Let’s take another look at L’Oreal’s lipstick tool to see how touchpoints and technology come together to drive a better CX. Each screen tap, each tweak, and each action by the customer is a touchpoint. L’Oreal captures data on all such interactions and funnels the information to product development, marketing, and other functions, allowing them to see what works and what they can improve. The amount of real time data generated is enormous. Each physical, digital, augmented, or virtual interaction links to information-rich networks that will recognize the customer and guide them along the purchasing path. These interactions give customers some agency over what they receive, resulting in deeper and richer personalized experiences.

让我们再看看欧莱雅的口红工具，看看接触点和技术是如何共同推动更好的客户体验。客户的每一次屏幕点击、每一次调整和每一次行动都是一个接触点。欧莱雅捕捉所有这些互动的数据，并将这些信息传递给产品开发、营销和其他职能部门，使他们能够看到哪些是有效的，哪些是可以改进的。产生的实时数据量是巨大的。每一个物理的、数字的、增强的或虚拟的互动都会链接到信息丰富的网络，这些网络将识别客户并引导他们沿着购买路径前进。这些互动让客户对他们收到的东西有一定的代理权，从而产生更深入、更丰富的个性化体验。

B2B companies are also using connected touchpoints to add customer value. John Deere’s ecosystem of smart devices and intelligence helps farmers improve yields and profitability. The company’s cloud-based machine management system funnels telematics into an AI platform that allows farmers to monitor their equipment in real time, collaborate with ecosystem partners for insights, and use analytics to determine what crops to plant in which locations, and the optimal times for doing so — all managed through a convenient smart phone app.

B2B公司也在利用互联接触点来增加客户价值。约翰迪尔的智能设备和智能生态系统帮助农民提高产量和盈利能力。该公司基于云的机器管理系统将远程信息处理技术引入一个人工智能平台，使农民能够实时监控他们的设备，与生态系统合作伙伴协作以获得洞察力，并使用分析方法来确定在什么地方种植什么作物，以及这样做的最佳时间--所有这些都通过一个方便的智能手机应用程序进行管理。

These kinds of benefits are especially important for younger customers, those aged 40 and under. Their churn rate is twice as high as that of the average population, which underscores both the upside of meeting their expectations as well as the risks of falling short. One key point is that younger customers value autonomy when shopping, which means that they increasingly prefer to interact with technology instead of people. In retail settings, for instance, close to 60% of young buyers say they favor using self-service “scan-and-go” kiosks over human cashiers when given the choice, as opposed to 30% for older customers. Our research found that their interest in a tech enriched CX is about two times higher than those aged 50, and three times higher than those aged 60.

这些好处对年轻客户，即40岁及以下的客户尤为重要。他们的流失率是普通人的两倍，这强调了满足他们的期望的好处，也强调了落空的风险。一个关键点是，年轻顾客在购物时重视自主性，这意味着他们越来越喜欢与技术而不是人互动。例如，在零售环境中，接近60%的年轻买家表示，在有选择的情况下，他们更喜欢使用自助式 "扫描即走 "信息亭，而不是人工收银员，而年长的顾客只有30%。我们的研究发现，他们对科技含量高的客户体验的兴趣比50岁的人高2倍，比60岁的人高3倍。

In some situations, though, young people can’t distinguish between human and virtual interaction. When Georgia Tech teaching assistant Jill Watson began dispensing valuable support and advice to computer science students in 2016, none recognized her true nature. She wasn’t a bright and friendly graduate student, as some assumed. She was a manifestation of IBM’s Watson AI platform, created by a team led by Georgia Tech professor Ashok Goel.

不过，在某些情况下，年轻人无法区分人类和虚拟的互动。当佐治亚理工学院的助教吉尔-沃森在2016年开始向计算机科学专业的学生发放宝贵的支持和建议时，没有人认识到她的真实面目。她并不像一些人假设的那样，是一个聪明而友好的研究生。她是IBM的沃森人工智能平台的一种表现形式，由佐治亚理工学院教授Ashok Goel领导的团队创建。

One inherent advantage of these high-tech touchpoints is that they are rapidly scalable and trainable. Jill Watson went on to serve as teaching assistant for 17 classes, something no human could manage. The original version of Jill Watson took about 1,500 hours to build, but recent versions take less than 10 hours, according to Goel. This is only one example of a broader trend. Until recently, the tools for next-generation interactions were either not commercially viable or too expensive for companies to deploy at scale. Today, it costs about 33% less to create an AI-based image classification system than it did four years ago, and training times have improved by 94%. Critical capabilities are easier to access, as the use of the cloud has grown dramatically. These changes allow more and more companies to engage with customers in increasingly sophisticated ways.

这些高科技接触点的一个固有优势是，它们可以迅速扩展和培训。吉尔-沃森后来担任了17个班级的助教，这是人类无法做到的。据Goel说，最初版本的Jill Watson花了大约1500个小时来建造，但最近的版本只需要不到10个小时。这只是一个更广泛趋势的一个例子。直到最近，下一代互动的工具要么在商业上不可行，要么对公司来说太昂贵，无法大规模部署。今天，创建一个基于人工智能的图像分类系统的成本比四年前低了约33%，而且训练时间也提高了94%。关键能力更容易获得，因为云的使用大幅增长。这些变化使越来越多的公司能够以越来越复杂的方式与客户接触。

We see three opportunities for business leaders who want to enhance their companies’ CX and drive greater satisfaction.

我们看到，对于那些希望增强公司的客户体验并推动更多满意度的企业领导人来说，有三个机会。

First, focus on frictionless commerce. Amazon Go stores serve as a unified, hyper-integrated touchpoint that allows customers to complete their entire shopping journey by doing nothing more than striding in, grabbing whatever item they like, and walking back out. Biometric identification, QR-enabled payments, and smart carts that scan items automatically are just some of the many technologies that will enable this type of journey.

首先，关注无摩擦商务。亚马逊Go商店作为一个统一的、超级集成的接触点，让顾客只需大步走进去，拿上他们喜欢的任何物品，然后走出来，就能完成整个购物之旅。生物识别、二维码支付和自动扫描商品的智能购物车只是实现这种旅程的众多技术中的一部分。

Second, consider augmented experiences. H&M is equipping some of its fitting-room mirrors with RFID technology that can recognize the items, size, and color of clothes customers bring into a fitting room. It then displays personalized product and styling information on the mirror. Over the next few years, as augmented and virtual reality tools become more mainstream, we expect to see more innovative ways to embed these capabilities into the customer journey.

第二，考虑增强型体验。H&M正在为其一些试衣间的镜子配备RFID技术，可以识别顾客带进试衣间的衣服的项目、尺寸和颜色。然后它在镜子上显示个性化的产品和造型信息。在接下来的几年里，随着增强型和虚拟现实工具成为主流，我们希望看到更多的创新方法，将这些功能嵌入到客户的旅程中。

Finally, emphasize intuitive interactions. In Nike’s flagship stores, customers can try out gear in activity centers equipped with basketball hoops, treadmills, and other fitness options. Cameras capture a customer’s gait and movement, allowing sales staff in the store to make more specific recommendations. Digital assistants then keep the empathy going — through apps that allow customers to view and share footage of them playing basketball, bots that provide tailored communications, and automated push notifications that send individuals special offers designed just for them.

最后，强调直观的互动。在耐克的旗舰店，顾客可以在配备有篮球架、跑步机和其他健身器材的活动中心试穿装备。摄像机捕捉顾客的步态和动作，使店内的销售人员能够做出更具体的建议。然后，数字助理将这种共鸣保持下去--通过允许顾客查看和分享他们打篮球的录像的应用程序，提供定制通信的机器人，以及自动推送通知，向个人发送专为他们设计的特别优惠。

More broadly, however, there are at least six actions that business leaders can start taking today to enter the future of customer engagement with confidence:

然而，更广泛地说，至少有六项行动，企业领导人今天就可以开始采取，以自信地进入未来的客户参与：

Our research clearly shows that companies with the highest customer satisfaction scores have generated twice as much shareholder value over the last 10 years relative to the average score. The stakes are substantial, as are the benefits of investing in modern CX.

我们的研究清楚地表明，在过去10年中，客户满意度最高的公司所创造的股东价值是平均分的两倍。赌注是巨大的，投资于现代客户体验的好处也是如此。

Many CEOs have already invested in improving CX but acknowledge slow progress. One reason is that companies have tied up significant scarce resources in the pursuit of incremental improvements. The marginal impact of solving pain points, eliminating inefficiencies, and making small CX improvements is slight. Those resources are better invested in bold moves.

许多CEO已经在改善客户体验方面进行了投资，但他们承认进展缓慢。其中一个原因是，公司在追求增量改进时占用了大量的稀缺资源。解决痛点、消除低效和进行小型客户体验改进的边际影响很小。这些资源最好投资于大胆的行动。

Companies should initially focus on two or three touchpoint initiatives at most. These initiatives should align strategically with the company’s brand and should target a high-value customer segment. For example, a company might choose to be a “convenience leader” or an “experience leader” and focus on touchpoints that can best deliver on that ambition.

公司最初最多应该专注于两到三个接触点的举措。这些举措应在战略上与公司的品牌保持一致，并应针对高价值客户群。例如，公司可以选择成为 "便利的领导者 "或 "体验的领导者"，并专注于能够最好地实现这一目标的接触点。

As Jeff Bezos once said, “Our success at Amazon is a function of how many experiments we do per year, per month, per week, per day.” Companies don’t have to spend large amounts on experimentation, but they should set aside an annual budget and use those resources to incubate new use cases and refine, expand, and scale existing ones.

正如杰夫-贝佐斯曾经说过的，"我们在亚马逊的成功是我们每年、每月、每周、每天做多少次实验的函数"。公司不必在实验上花费大量资金，但他们应该留出年度预算，并利用这些资源来孵化新的用例，完善、扩大和扩展现有的用例。

The direct-to-consumer company Interior Define, for example, has grown its budget for experiments from 5% to 15% of its total digital marketing spend. Not knowing which platforms and technologies might hold sway in the years ahead, they wanted to be ready for whatever bears fruit.

例如，直接面向消费者的公司Interior Define已将其用于实验的预算从其数字营销总支出的5%增加到15%。由于不知道哪些平台和技术可能在未来几年中占据主导地位，他们希望为任何成果做好准备。

Experimenting with new ways to engage customers can pay off handsomely, especially during downturns. Leaders can look for “no-regrets” moves to make right away based on their business strategy and positioning and begin actively testing-and-learning other use cases. This process ensures that they will have initiatives that are ready to launch when the commercial and investment conditions improve.

尝试用新的方式来吸引客户，可以获得丰厚的回报，尤其是在经济衰退期。领导者可以根据他们的业务战略和定位，立即寻找 "不后悔 "的行动，并开始积极测试和学习其他用例。这个过程可以确保当商业和投资条件改善时，他们会有准备好的举措可以启动。

Companies may pursue two or three touchpoint use cases in parallel, but until they build the right data and analytics core, they should not move on.

公司可以同时追求两三个接触点用例，但在建立正确的数据和分析核心之前，他们不应该继续前进。

One large telco, for example, built a unified master customer database in the cloud, which gave it a single source of truth for each customer as well as access to powerful cloud-based AI applications. One of the first campaigns focused on the prepaid SIM card segment. It started sending offers to customers on the days they received their pay checks, because its customer data and AI analytics show a greater likelihood for topping up their cards on that day. Over time, the self-learning capabilities of the AI engine allowed the telco to send communications using the touchpoints and formats customers preferred at the times they were most likely to respond.

例如，一家大型电信公司在云端建立了一个统一的主客户数据库，为每个客户提供了一个单一的真相来源，并可以访问强大的基于云的人工智能应用程序。首批活动之一集中在预付SIM卡领域。它开始在客户收到工资支票的那一天向他们发送优惠，因为它的客户数据和人工智能分析显示，在那一天给他们的卡充值的可能性更大。随着时间的推移，人工智能引擎的自学能力使电信公司能够在客户最有可能做出反应的时候，使用客户喜欢的接触点和格式发送通信。

Companies will need to experiment with different go-to-market structures that provide the necessary agility and knowledge sharing. Examples include hub-and-spoke constructs that feature a shared knowledge and analytics center and a mix of touchpoint-centric teams. Strategies should also factor in the enhanced role that human assistants can play. Digital and virtual interactions can automate many routine tasks, which allows companies to reimagine the ways that humans can add value to the customer journey.

公司将需要尝试不同的进入市场的结构，以提供必要的灵活性和知识共享。这方面的例子包括以共享知识和分析中心为特点的枢纽和辐条结构，以及以接触点为中心的团队组合。战略还应该考虑到人类助手所能发挥的更大作用。数字和虚拟互动可以使许多常规任务自动化，这使得公司可以重新想象人类可以为客户旅程增加价值的方式。

The future of customer engagement looks bright. As the enabling technologies become more powerful, more desirable, and more affordable, the greatest limitation on how companies can satisfy customers is their own imaginations.

客户参与的未来看起来很光明。随着使能技术变得更强大、更理想、更实惠，公司如何满足客户的最大限制就是他们自己的想象力。