Why are UK companies a long way behind their US counterparts when it comes to engaging with their customers via social media?
April 15, 2011Customer Service, Customer Experience and Measuring How Your Company Feels: Interview with Derek Williams of the Wow! Awards
April 26, 2011
Over the last few weeks, I’ve had a couple of conversations with the folks across at Adobe about what they are up to in the customer experience space.
On the back of that I’m in the middle of organising another interview for the blog with a member of the Adobe team to get their perspective and insight on the whole customer experience space, trends etc.
The person we are trying to set up a time to have a chat with is Rob Pinkerton, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Customer Experience Management. You can check out his bio here. All very impressive.
However, what really interested me was the post he recently wrote on Adobe’s blog called: In the Future, People Rule the World.
In it he talks about a website called GetHuman.com. I’d never heard of this site but, apparently, it started out as a ‘cheat-sheet’ of ways to make direct contact with a real person at a company that you wanted to contact thus allowing you to circumvent all of those (sometimes frustrating) web forms, automated voice systems (press 1 for X or 2 for Y etc) etc.
However, back to Rob’s post.
I really liked it because it comes from someone that works for a technology company but recognises that more self-service technology is not necessarily the solution but that technology that aids the human experience is what the consumer is demanding and companies that don’t get that or start to get that quick will lose out.
This I found really interesting and decided to go off and investigate GetHuman.com a bit more.
Here’s what I found:
- It’s popular:
- According to Alexa.com, Gethuman.com’s three-month global Alexa traffic rank is 59,397. Roughly 71% of visitors to the site come from the US, where it has attained a traffic rank of 14,234 ie. it’s the 14,234th most popular site in the US, according to Alexa’s metrics.
- According to Compete.com, Gethuman.com’s number of monthly unique visitors has nearly doubled in the last year and has a ranking of 7,699th most popular website in the US, up from 13,413th a year ago.
- They have a fantastic set of hopes:
- “I hope that companies will finally “get the message”, and realize it is better for the bottom line to treat their paying and potential customers with respect.”
- “I hope that consumers will recognize their power, and steer business towards good companies, and shut down bad companies who will not change.”
- “I hope that some day we will be able to close this website, and to replace it with a “gone fishing” sign.”
All of this digging around made me agree that the inexorable and growing search for human contact in customer experience and customer service is marching on and we’d better get ready.
And, when do you think GetHuman.com will be putting up its “gone fishing” sign?
Thanks to cdedbdme for the image.
8 Comments
Hi Adrian
That is a fantastic website and so appropriate. My feeling is that we are moving into the human age strangely thanks to technology. Its like the old days in the village. If a baker keeps messing up his bread, he is not going to last. It made communities stronger. This is what technology is doing for us. And its a really good thing.
Hi Michael,
It is fascinating how techology is allowing us to build better links, relationships and communities but, I think, the lesson here is that human contact or, at least, the sound of a real human voice is still an essential part of any experience. Particularly when we have a question, are unsure of something or something goes wrong.
Thanks for dropping by,
Adrian
Adrian,
When I used to run the best practice forums I would show the audience the gethuman site when we were talking about IVR and the importance of designing queuing experiences that reflected what mattered to the consumers that posted at gethuman.com
I remember when I first showed it, few were impressed. A year later they had added UK cheat numbers to circumvent the IVR and suddenly that had their attention!
It’s proved an enduring pressure group over the years and as you say has now moved into the zeitgeist with the new emphasis on the human touch.
Well done on promoting their good work and introducing them to a wider audience
Martin
Hi Martin,
Thank you for that.
You know I hadn’t checked out their reach and coverage but just have. According to their listings, they cover 2,807 companies in the US and 143 in the UK amongst other locations.
An interesting list of companies in the UK list (http://gethuman.com/numbers/uk). This is where I get a bit nerdy and go off for a further delve into who’s on there and what experience they are trying to make us use. Interesting stuff.
Adrian
Hi Adrian
Interesting post. Recently I had a great experience with the web based newsletter folks MailChimp. They offer online chat to help with technical questions and it works beautifully. You know you are speaking to a “real” person when they actually interact with you as a person and you end the instant messaging system thinking you’ve just made a new friend!
Kate
Hi Kate,
That’s a great example. I use Mailchimp too and really like what they do. I have never had the need to contact them in person but it is really great to know that when I do want to reach out that there is someone there and not just another auto response gizmo or form to fill in. Thanks for bigging up MailChimp. They obviously deserve it.
Adrian
Adrain,
To tag onto Michael’s post. I think businesses are becoming believers in technology beyond production and optimization. There is a new level of understanding what technology can do for the customer experience as it did for production.
Bill
Hi Bill,
Thanks for dropping by. There is a whole world of potential and opportunity that is available to us that is aided by technology. Those that are willing to go on the journey will be set for some exciting times ahead 🙂
Adrian