Delight Everyone
How is your technology investment delighting everyone? Or enabling your employees to delight your customer?
Wow, a Positive Experience ...
I get my cell phone service from AT&T and I'm absolutely delighted.
AT&T delights me.
Why?
Through their app on my phone, I can view my account and all of the devices associated with it. I can see their current usage levels and set monitors and alerts on activities. I can review my charges and statements. I can enable and disable features within my plan, and even upgrade my plan directly from my phone.
On their website, I have even greater control over my experience with AT&T. Previous account statements, history, analytics, insight into usage patterns and behaviors.
When I was interested in getting the next generation of iPhone, iPhone 6, I could perform a trade-in check right from the device itself. It made me an offer right there. It walked me through plan upgrades and the purchase. Once placed, AT&T shot me an order number that could be tracked on their website, showing me the status of the order and eventual delivery status.
Afterwards, they followed-up with a text survey to learn how my experience was.
Why Delighting Matters
Delighting is cool!
AT&T delights me. They use technology to transform my experience with them from just "carrier" to "partner". I feel like I've got a quality, premium experience with them ... and they never had to lift a human finger to make it happen.
And I rarely speak to anyone over the phone or in their stores. Even then, they greet me in person and enter my information into a tablet that tracks my need and order in the sales queue; they're always friendly and efficient.
Technology investments that delight your customers are some of the best strategic investments you can make. Using technology to change client experiences from "hard/difficult" to "easy/convenient" is the differentiation that'll set you apart from the competition. It's real value added to the relationship. How we use technology to make others feel is important. Technology plays a big role here.
How are You Delighting Your Customers?
If you're a small business owner, ask yourself:
- How are your technology investments delighting your customers, every day?
- How is your technology allowing your employees to delight your customers?
- How is your technology enabling both employees and customers to delight others?
- How does a singular technology investment make just one aspect of your business relationship faster, more reliable, more accurate, and more self-directed, so people feel inclusive and as a partner, rather than frustrated and disenfranchised?
R
The Perils of Private Email Accounts
This small business owner was shocked when I had to tell him of a potential information breach ... because he relied upon private email solutions for his business. Here's why that's a bad idea.
Uh Oh, Spaghetti-o ...
A client approached me the other day with a concern.
He feared that an employee that recently left the company was poaching his client base. He needed me to make sure that his systems were secure. I confirmed that was the case, but then he asked, "What about her email?"
Prior to engaging me, the client just had his employees setup private Yahoo! accounts. Now, with the employee gone, he needed to take control of that data.
And Now ... The Bad News ...
"No-can-do," I had to tell him, and I needed to explain some rules of the road.
Yahoo! is a private email container. As an employer of the employee, he can't access it nor control it; the EULA (End User License Agreement) is between the provider and his employee. FCC rules say that's private property, and, attempting to monitor what goes on in those email accounts is tantamount to eavesdropping on your employees.
"But those are my clients," he argued, and I empathized, but I suggested there's little he can do.
"You shouldn't have been relying on private email accounts for company business," I suggested.
And then I had to explain the really bad part.
Classified Data
You see, this guy is in the business of working with confidential, classified forms of Protected Health Information, or, PHI. Every now and again, PHI about his customers were probably emailed to this individual and fell outside of his control. Further, it was possible that customer's drivers license information was shared with the former employee.
"Technically, that's potentially a breach," I had to explain, "where you've lost control of classified forms of data under two sets of law: HIPAA - federal law managing PHI - and State of Washington Data Breach Law. You've lost control of the data and can't account for its whereabouts, access control, or destruction."
So What Do We Do Now?
At that point, he started looking at me pretty nervous-like, and I discussed his options going forward.
- The company should set up a secure email and storage system. It just so happens that I'm a reseller for Google Apps. Google Apps has sought and received FISMA, ISO 27001, and SSAE 16 certifications for information system security, and understands its Business Associate obligations for managing PHI. Google's server traffic is encrypted and the data stored on its cloud platform is encrypted; Google Apps Privacy and Security are some of the best practices in the industry. Google's a big proponent of responsible computing and that's why I work with them.
- Under the company's flag, they own this asset. They can control and audit and revoke access. They can determine who and what devices receive confidential forms of information that they're responsible for. And if a termination event happens again, we're in control.
- Implement an Administrative Control (a policy) that states employees can only use the corporate email system for company business. Violating that policy is grounds for dismissal. That sets up management's intention and clarifies the obligations of employees. That's called an Acceptable Use Policy, and it turns out that I've got a stock policy just hanging around that he could modify.
- Finally, we train the employees on handling classified forms of information, and advise them of their responsibilities and tips for best practices.
In this way, I helped him craft a more successful strategy going forward that would limit his liability, protect the interest of his customers, and bring him closer to a state of information compliance.
That's the kind of value I bring to every engagement with my customers. Want to know more? Give me a jingle - I'd be happy to talk about how I can help you.
R
Useless Technology Investments Yield No Value
Here's an example of how completely useless technology investments yield absolutely zero value.
This is a monitor mounted on the wall in an elevator lobby in Vancouver, Washington.
It's actually representative of nine other similar monitors installed across five floors and two buildings on the same property.
Each and every monitor displays just one word. Welcome. And it's displayed welcome for well over four months.
It's so freekin' awesome. Serious. The graphic never changes. They all just display welcome and the word is now pretty much burned into the monitors.
So, I'm trying to think of the costs associated with this overly-expensive welcome sign. The electrical wiring, the network wiring, the labor, the capital equipment charges, the logic/service that must tell the screen to display welcome. I mean, all told, we must be talking some tens of thousands of dollars spent on the project to permanently display welcome on every floor.
Lost. Wasted. Trashed. Flushed. Worthless.
Remember how I was just talking about how technology should provide value? How does this provide value? Better, let's use our imagination and think about how it could provide value:
- The monitor could display a building directory of tenants.
- It could display a cheerful video describing the benefits of becoming a tenant.
- It could be an interactive tool to help guide people to their desired tenant.
- The monitor could highlight a tenant every month, extending appreciation for tenants.
- Why, the monitor could even display a calendar of events important to the property manager.
- It could inform tenants of upcoming maintenance activities, like, for example, getting the electronic directory system working.
- It could display a blog from a snarky technology consultant criticizing the strategic value of an electronic welcome sign.
Just think of the possibilities! Meanwhile, this thing just sits there displaying the same graphic every day, extending no value than what couldn't have been provided by a 1 meter stick, cardboard paper, a thick Sharpie, and some glue. Essentially, this investment is worthless and yields no value. Why do it? Why invest in it? Why spend all that money and time and resources to just ... welcome people?
What's the value in technology spending if it just does stuff like this? What's the strategy? How does it reduce expenses, contain expenses, or generate revenue? How does it differentiate this property from other similar properties? How does it speak to the property management's values or express value or appreciation in every tenant relationship? What's its purpose?!
Anyway, this stuff yanks my chain. If you've got any example of totally worthless tech, I'd love to hear about it. Snap a picture and send it to me on Facebook. Thanks!
R