Trendwatching’s monthly reports on consumer and business trends are always a fun read for keeping a pulse on the cutting-edge of worldwide consumer culture. In this month’s mini trends edition, many of the examples are, additionally, lessons in providing customer service by personalizing experiences and using communications channels in innovative ways.
A few samples:
- Uniqlo Wake Up and Winter Wake Up: Yes, your phone has an alarm in it, but it’s just a digital rendition of the same alarm clocks people have been using for ages. With Uniqlo Wake Up, the iPhone or Android app provides that valuable service (a morning alarm), customized with soothing tones that change depending on the day of week, time of day and the weather forecast (data that would be easy to incorporate with location-based services). The Winter Wake Up app also pulls weather forecasts, and adjusts according to your specifications if inclement weather is likely to extend your commute. For those who actually have the potential to get snow days, the function that instructs it to not wake you up at all if the weather is impassable is probably nice, too.
- One-Touch Wonders: As the briefing says, “For truly time starved consumers, nothing beats the simplicity and convenience of ordering or paying with a single touch, swipe, tap or button press.” We agree – this philosophy has driven many of our innovations in Twitter for customer service, in addition to mobile apps.
- 24/7 Feedback: The idea of an app that constantly monitors a particular activity can also be very useful for your customers. Fitness apps and gamification of daily tasks are common examples, and Trendwatching also cites an app which parses consumers’ spending trends and gives feedback – which could be interesting next-level functionality for a financial institution looking to move beyond simple spending alerts.
- Safety nets: for applications related to security and safety, location-based services have created many opportunities for improving response time, monitoring local reports and more.
- Tasksumers: Mobile apps have the ability to enable a truly mobile workforce – whether enabling freelancers to find single-shift jobs close to them, enabling mobile data-collection, connecting couriers, and other small, one-off transactions.
For more ideas and inspiration, check out the full briefing. And if you’re looking to add innovative mobile or social customer service functionality to your business offerings – drop us a comment, as we’d love to chat with you!
Related posts:
- New Stats About Customer Service Trends by Aberdeen Research
- Wacky weather – and a tale of global offices
- Trends In Customer Service: Multi-Channel Edition
- Voxeo and ICMI Webinar: Building a Mobile Customer Service Strategy
- Voxeo’s Dan York’s slides from VoiceCon: Developing Voice Apps Using Mashups and SOA
