Career News 24/7: The Cynical Girl: You Know What’s Trendy? Customer Experience.

Friday, March 8, 2013

The Cynical Girl: You Know What’s Trendy? Customer Experience.

You Know What’s Trendy? Customer Experience.

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 03:45 AM PST

You know what’s trendy in all segments of the economy except in HR technology? Customer experience.

I just attended the 22nd Annual Dynamic Women in Business Conference at the Harvard Business School. The most common theme? Customer experience.

Not innovation. Not customer adoption. Not the feminist hermeneutics of post-WWII comparative theological literature.

Customer experience.

In fact, I was lucky to hear Mara Castro, Director of Customer Experience at Warby Parker, talk about “customer experience” being a key differentiator in their business. If you don’t know Warby Parker, an online glasses company, it works like this:

You (the customer) look at frames online.
You pick five out to try on at home for free.
You get a box of frames.
If you like them, great.
If you don’t, no biggie.
Stick those glasses back in the mail.

It is easy and the experience is awesome. And when it’s not awesome, you don’t call and schedule a meeting to address your concerns. You’re not put in some stupid queue. You can use a whole host of traditional and social channels to get your issues addressed.

I thought about the Warby Parker model for the HR space. You say — we’re doing it. I say — you’re not. You say — customer experience is different in the B2B environment. I say — yes it is. Your customer’s experience sucks with you because you lack imagination and you won’t give up control.

What if your HR Tech company had Mara? Someone with a personal brand and a soul? And what if your buyer/client/customer was never more than two steps away from someone who felt her pain and could fix her experience?

You don’t have Mara but you should. Too bad she likes her job so much.