Conversational Service

Ars Technica published a great write-up on the resurgence of chat as something we use the internet for at the expense of all else. Indeed, the craze about being a part of massive social networks abates now that everyone (and their mother) is on on them already, posting drivel and trolling each other. The tedium of massive social networks is the mild vanilla flavor of everything and everyone.

Social media are at their best when enabling a direct conversation with a friend or a small group of friends who stake out a little corner of the ‘net for themselves and their pet peeves or passions. Hence the strong showing of chat platforms like WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram, Snapchat, Slack, you name it.

Service providers reacted to the wave of social media platforms in the past decade or so by creating a presence on these platforms (often facebook and Twitter) and hooking these one-to-many conversations into their ticketing systems to track support requests, conversations about their business and mine opportunities. Vanilla came, saw and conquered.

There is just no way to differentiate your company by being on a platform where you are just one of many other companies and where the people you are broadcasting to are each one of many other (potential) customers. The self and the other are only meaningful in aggregate on social networks, because selling aggregate data as targeted ads is the bread and butter of the companies who keep the durn things running. Classic social media are about reaching the many, but not about having a meaningful conversation when you have reached a one. This is deadly to identity, loyalty and service. Yes, you can target ads, profile people and do cool big data things. It’s cynical and exploitative, and the customer reciprocates by brand hopping, price shopping and tuning you out.

Now, reclaiming its rightful role, chat is here to stay. Tools to talk to anyone and everyone tête-à-tête are fast becoming standard in every online service proposition. Retail websites recognise when someone is browsing with a purpose and offer instant chat support from a sales rep. Knowledge bases know when someone is floundering in the sea of FAQ’s, pop up a chat window and clue in the support guy on the other side to your apparent needs.

This kind of contact is a much better customer experience. It’s attentive, personal, contextual and meaningful. It’s what you need, where the what, the you and the need are all specific instead of generic.

Conversational Services are about one-to-one relationships with customers, about staying in their context and talking by their definition of value. It’s about keeping and growing relationships based on being heard rather than measured, understood rather than profiled, about people rather than data*. In essence, this type of relationship is a conversational way to exchange value, rather than a transactional way, which fits service provision quite well.

Service providers, from retailers to online tax consultants, are well underway in making the change. CRM tools, web content management systems and support tooling are rapidly improving their propositions in this area. I hope you and yours will join the conversation!

*:Don’t misunderstand me, I’m a huge fan of big data, just not of having superficial and exploitative relationships with key service providers in my life. I love great content that expands my world or fills my needs. I hate being a clickbaited pair of eyeballs. That’s the difference.

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