A Social Worker in IT — It’s all about Excitement
by Kathrina Rothwangl
My journey into the world of IT was far from a direct one. I’m actually a trained social worker and anyone who knows my dear colleagues at CodeFlügel, will also know that there’s potential for a few office jokes in that. But really, there is more that unites my two professions than separates them. Don’t believe me? Then you should read on.
One common factor is the need to elicit excitement. The current Pokémon Go hype, for example, shows us just how excited people can get about software solutions. And harnessing that enthusiasm is the key to 21st century marketing, in my opinion (or at least for the marketing of the next decades until those technologies have become the standard, but excitement will be important in any case). Anyway, my basic argumentation is as follows:
Every company (and I mean all of them — yours, mine, non-profit ones, global ones, large ones, tiny ones — what have you) are looking for solutions with which to acquire clients and make them loyal customers. It’s all about the intensity and duration of customer relationships, about maximizing customer satisfaction and purchase frequency. In short: the goal is to tap the full customer potential. Why? To make you and me buy and sell things, so we make a profit, so we are seen faster, appear better and so on.
Welcome to free market economy, welcome to marketing!
Now as a social worker, I always thought that was an awful thing — all the posing and the wanting more. All of it horrible for a do-gooder like me. ;)
But: after a few months of job experience (in social work, no less), also my inner social romanticist understood that it’s important to be seen and to be heard. After all, we all depend on it (we want to eat, we want, we want, we want). Even charity organizations want things — help more people, that is — and thus, they always need more money. But let’s not delve too deep into social politics here, I was actually going to tell you about my experience in the IT sector as a non tech savvy social worker. Therefore, first: welcome to psychology!
Because, however I look at it, the work of any company, be it CodeFlügel or the Red Cross (sorry, bosses, but there are certain similarities, you know!) is about people. People interacting, communicating, perceiving, selecting, evaluating, feeling and doing (and even doing nothing is doing something according to psychology ;))
Therefore, let’s combine psychology and economy and throw in augmented reality as an example. Now, I’m sure that’s not a logical mental leap for you yet, so let’s stay with something simple for now.
Why communicate with customers?
Customers usually have information deficits. Well, that sounded worse than I meant it to — all it actually means is that they decide based on different factors than someone who knows your product inside and out (and that’s basically just you, let’s face it). They lack background knowledge, so they decide based on price, accessible (technical) data, the perceived expertise and the trust they have in you or your company. In short: their decision is based on emotional factors. Now the company’s job is to use this customer behaviour, to enable them to make more informed decisions.
We, meaning customers, live in a world of information overload, saturated markets and exchangeable offers. Therefore, companies also have to package their information in a way that will cognitively and emotionally activate us in order to build our interest and direct it to their particular offer. And when companies use the customers’ preoccupation with the company or product, that will lead to a stronger presence on the market. Based on the form of interaction, it will strengthen the company’s image or service orientation and help with customer building and customer relations.
And by the way, that also happens when the companies don’t actively communicate. To loosely quote Watzlawick: companies are senders and receivers, companies can’t not communicate!
Communication and Technology — Augmented Reality
Here, we can understand augmented reality as a new information and communication technology leading to the activation of emotional and cognitive processes, which in turn drives decision processes, heightens the so-called involvement and increases the time people spend with your product.
Thus, augmented reality can be a support in any phase of the customer life cycle. It’s not just a gimmick — when used professionally, it is a useful marketing tool that has a profound effect. Information is passed on quickly and lastingly, because it targets multiple senses. Speaking as a social worker: it leads to the interplay of multiple stimuli, which increases its effect (see: sensoric learning).
But also simple mobile apps, web pages, product configurators and individual software serve communication — if they are designed in a user-friendly. So we could make the same comparison here. But I will leave you to think about that (or wait for further blog posts) for yourself, as I prefer to tell you more about excitement.
Right, where is the promised excitement?
Coming right up. I’ll use AR again, because it’s just the best example. Because, have you ever looked into the face of someone who for the first time scanned something with their smartphone or tablet and got their first look into the fascinating world of augmented reality? I tell you, it’s a wonderful moment — priceless. That astonishment, an awed “wow”, just pure joy and excitement! I can’t do a better job of explaining it with words, so I’ll leave it here. But I do recommend you try it out on someone yourself.
Excitement increases Motivation!
Excitement is the strongest form of motivation, the best messenger for a cause. People who are excited about something can win over others. Excitability is infectious. Physiologically, (yes, the social worker strikes again) excitement is an arousal of the midbrain. It causes a chain reaction that sets free a range of neurotransmitters such as adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine, as well as endorphines and enkephalin.
Or, if you want to look at it entirely un-scientifically, you can watch the following video.
And not only overly excitable people will experience that natural high. Everyone can spark that same excitement and enthusiasm within themselves. And now, I’ve finally arrived at the point where psychology meets economy and technology: software solutions help companies to communicate with and to excite others! And actually, that’s pretty simple, right?
As a certified do-gooder, talking and creating excitement comes naturally to Kathrina. And when she isn’t doing that, she coordinates project schedules and can be quite annoying persistent in asking “who will do what and when?”. But she doesn’t care — when it gets too much, she takes a vacation, goes for a drink (so talking, again), meditates or proves what she said was true with the help of a book ;) A real positive thinker.
