Commit to the Customer – not the Technology

One of our greatest challenges in designing the best experiences for our customers is not letting the technology limitation determine the customer experience. When organizations commit to the technology instead of committing to the customers – everyone loses. In this age of the experience economy, this can mean the end for organizations that do not put the customer experience first.

I was recently visiting with a friend and colleague who worked at Nokia. Since we discussed how Apple won the Smartphone market with the touch experience in chapter one of The Customer Experience Revolution, I had to ask how Nokia missed the boat on touch screen for phones. She explained that Nokia did try touch screen – long before Apple introduced them – and they didn’t test well.

How could that be?

She explained that the underlying technology was too slow for the response time needed for the touch experience. So it was the technology limitation that could not support the best experience.

This is a lesson for all of us. Let’s ensure that we are committed to the best experiences for our customer and find or build technologies that support this. Don’t get caught in the trap of organizations that commit to a technology and limit their abilities to deliver the best experiences for their customers.