Technology’s Back-end Effect

Consider the technology in the context of how your customer will use it. Interactive voice-response technology (IVR) has been all the rage of late. While early systems really struggled to interpret speech, new systems can be quite good at it. But when used in the context of some customer situations, the technology doesn’t work well at all. Consider the context and provide alternatives for when customers can’t use them.
Don’t Let This Happen
As a consultant, I have to fly a lot. This year has been particularly taxing, with delayed flights and missed connections. Lines at customer service desks often have been so long that I could miss the next flight out. So, I’ve often called the airlines’ customer service operations on my cell phone from the airport. Ever tried to work through an IVR system on a cell phone in a noisy airport? My backup attempt to use my handheld personal digital assistant to make changes through the Web site also proved fruitless — airline sites aren’t optimized for handhelds, even though most business travelers use them. Enough said.