为什么数字化时代客户体验变得越来越糟糕？

As we increasingly navigate our lives via the digital landscape, modern brands are investing more in customer experience—or CX, if you’re one of the cool kids—to drive engagement and growth. Media is fragmented to the point where advertising has reached its limits, so modern CMOs now have CXO counterparts or simply have added customer experience to their annual KPIs.
随着我们越来越多地通过数字环境驾驭我们的生活，现代品牌正在加大对客户体验的投资，以推动参与度和增长。媒体碎片化到广告已达到极限的程度，因此现代 CMO 现在有 CXO 同行，或者只是将客户体验添加到年度 KPI 中。

Which begs the question: Why are customer experiences getting worse and not better?
这就引出了一个问题：为什么客户体验变得更糟而不是更好？

You might discover the answer by looking at your phone—or, better yet, by trying not to look at your phone while still managing any aspect of daily life. Most CX experts for brands or marketing agencies grew up in a digital-first environment with a focus on harnessing emerging technology for seamless interactions. Accelerated by AI, this led to an explosion of chatbots, aggressive mining of first-party data, and a cloying degree of personalization.
您可能会通过查看手机来找到答案，或者更好的是，在处理日常生活的任何方面时尽量不看手机。大多数品牌或营销机构的客户体验专家都是在数字优先的环境中成长的，专注于利用新兴技术实现无缝交互。在人工智能的加速下，这导致了聊天机器人的爆炸式增长、对第一方数据的积极挖掘以及令人厌烦的个性化程度。

What’s missing is the realization that we don’t live on our phones, we live with our phones, and despite the over-hyped buzz around the metaverse, most of us intend to keep our corporeal forms intact. Humans are digital tourists, not natives, and even millennials and GenZ are rediscovering the need for physical experiences and personal interactions.
我们缺少的是这样的认识：我们不是靠手机生活，而是靠手机生活，尽管虚拟宇宙被过度炒作，但我们大多数人都打算保持我们的物质形态完好无损。人类是数字游客，而不是本地人，甚至千禧一代和 Z 世代也正在重新发现身体体验和个人互动的需求。

This isn’t a Luddite’s appeal for simpler times; it’s a cautionary tale for anyone in the service business, because customers are starting to complain.
这并不是勒德分子对简单时代的诉求；而是对简单时代的诉求。对于服务行业的任何人来说，这都是一个警示，因为客户开始抱怨。

A study last year suggested most people would rather do their taxes, shave their heads, or spend a night in jail rather than speak to customer service. We’ve reached a point where people prefer incarceration over trying to get the phone company to answer the phone.
去年的一项研究表明，大多数人宁愿报税、剃光头或在监狱里度过一夜，也不愿与客户服务人员交谈。我们已经到了这样的地步：人们宁愿被监禁，也不愿让电话公司接听电话。

Even brands once known for their accessibility seemingly use everything in their digital arsenal to steer you away from talking directly to another human, with the empty assurance you’re exactly like everyone else and can solve your picayune problem if you just scour the website for answers.
即使是曾经以其可访问性而闻名的品牌，似乎也会使用其数字武器库中的所有内容来引导您远离直接与另一个人交谈，空洞地保证您与其他人一模一样，并且只要您在网站上搜索答案就可以解决您的问题。

That isn’t improved customer experience—it’s corporate misdirection designed to divert our gaze from the mass layoffs of customer service employees. No one at these companies believes it’s easier to speak to their AI-powered assistant for five minutes before being transferred to the next circle of voicemail Hell, but answering the phone quickly would require restaffing all those call centers. It may be a better experience for the company’s stockholders, but it’s a wasted afternoon and a rise in blood pressure for you.
这并不是客户体验的改善，而是企业的误导，旨在转移我们对客户服务员工大规模裁员的注意力。这些公司中没有人认为，在转移到下一个语音信箱地狱之前与人工智能助理交谈五分钟会更容易，但快速接听电话将需要重新配置所有这些呼叫中心的人员。对于公司股东来说，这可能是一次更好的体验，但对于你来说，这是一个浪费的下午，而且血压会上升。

It was bad enough when companies were stealing our data, but now they are stealing our time.
当公司窃取我们的数据时已经很糟糕了，但现在他们正在窃取我们的时间。

Estimate how much time you spend each day deleting unwanted emails or unsubscribing from spam you never intended to receive in the first place, then multiply those minutes by a rough guess as to how many years you have left on this planet. Even a casual email user is facing several months stolen from loved ones, friends, or your favorite hobbies.
估算一下您每天花多少时间删除不需要的电子邮件或取消订阅您本来不想收到的垃圾邮件，然后将这些分钟乘以粗略的猜测您在这个星球上还剩多少年。即使是一个普通的电子邮件用户也面临着从亲人、朋友或您最喜欢的爱好中被盗几个月的情况。

We’ve fallen too far down the digital rabbit hole and lost sight of the sun.
我们已经在数字兔子洞里掉得太远了，看不到太阳了。

Try grabbing a quick bite with a friend without stopping mid-conversation to pull out your phone and scan a QR code for the menu. Are paper menus so expensive that a digital interruption is worth it? We were already addicted to our thousand-dollar phones, but now we’re completely co-dependent, and everyone knows how those relationships end. Statistically, we look at screens more than we look at other people, and we touch our devices far more than we shake hands, hug, or even smile at strangers passing by.
尝试与朋友一起快速吃点东西，不要在谈话中停止，拿出手机扫描菜单的二维码。纸质菜单如此昂贵以至于数字化中断值得吗？我们已经对千元手机上瘾了，但现在我们完全相互依赖，每个人都知道这些关系将如何结束。据统计，我们看屏幕的次数比看其他人的次数多，我们触摸设备的次数也远远多于与路过的陌生人握手、拥抱甚至微笑的次数。

Digital detours are the new nicotine, and the subsequent loss of meaningful connections has reached the point at which there is a general acknowledgment of a global loneliness epidemic.
数字化迂回是新的尼古丁，随后有意义的联系的丧失已经达到了全球孤独流行病的普遍认识。

So, what can a company do, and how can a savvy marketer make a difference? We can start by bringing some much-needed empathy back into CX.
那么，公司可以做什么，精明的营销人员如何才能发挥作用呢？我们可以首先将一些急需的同理心带回到客户体验中。

Take grocery shopping. Self-checkout is undoubtedly convenient for some, but depending on what’s in your cart, your age, or your eyesight, it might be nice to get help once in a while. Yet even the poshest chains have gone too far in cutting checkout staff, so lines have gotten longer, and time—our most precious commodity—is being wasted again. And virtue-signaling aside, wouldn’t it be nice to get a bag to hold your groceries without being charged? If you get a bag from the Nike store or Lululemon, maybe you deserve one to carry your tomatoes.
以杂货店购物为例。自助结账对于某些人来说无疑很方便，但根据您购物车中的商品、您的年龄或视力，偶尔获得帮助可能会更好。然而，即使是最豪华的连锁店在削减收银人员方面也走得太远，因此队伍变得更长，而时间——我们最宝贵的商品——又被浪费了。抛开美德信号不谈，如果能有一个袋子来装你的杂货而不需要付费，这不是很好吗？如果您从 Nike 商店或 Lululemon 购买了一个包，也许您值得拥有一个来装西红柿。

Airlines have spent millions updating their apps to make boarding easier, but once on the plane, only a Lilliputian or sardine could fit comfortably in a coach seat.
航空公司花费了数百万美元更新他们的应用程序，以方便登机，但一旦登上飞机，只有小人国或沙丁鱼可以舒适地坐在经济舱座位上。

And therein lies the lesson: a return to first principles of human-centric design. Companies focused on efficiency think customers won’t notice a digital denigration of their experience—like frogs boiling in water getting hotter by degrees—but they do.
这就是教训：回归以人为本的设计首要原则。注重效率的公司认为，客户不会注意到他们体验的数字化诋毁——就像青蛙在水中煮得越来越热一样——但他们确实注意到了。

Breakaway brands will place empathy before efficiency. This means a slow walk along the customer journey, embracing twists and turns as customers change their minds. Some touchpoints are digital but an equal number are flesh and blood. Personalization does not necessarily mean personal, so if your digital assistants become gatekeepers, you’ve lost the plot.
突破性品牌会将同理心置于效率之上。这意味着沿着客户旅程缓慢前行，随着客户改变想法而经历曲折。有些接触点是数字化的，但同样数量的接触点是有血有肉的。个性化并不一定意味着个性化，所以如果你的数字助理成为看门人，你就失去了控制力。

The practice of customer experience was meant to be a continuous improvement of customer service. Through that lens, the application of technology becomes intuitive.
客户体验的实践意味着客户服务的持续改进。通过这个镜头，技术的应用变得直观。

Answer the phone as if your favorite sibling is calling. Design the store around a visit from your mom. Build a website that your forgetful friend can navigate, and provide the option to use the chat, email, or call depending on their mood. Always on their terms, not yours.
接听电话就像您最喜欢的兄弟姐妹打电话一样。围绕你妈妈的来访设计商店。建立一个网站供您健忘的朋友浏览，并根据他们的心情提供使用聊天、电子邮件或通话的选项。总是按照他们的条件，而不是你的条件。

CX has never been complicated, but it’s not easy, either. For every digital innovation, there are unexpected consequences, so building the ideal customer experience requires restraint. Rather than assume tech is always the answer, try asking yourself a simple question: What would you do for your family and friends?
CX 从来都不复杂，但也不容易。每一次数字创新都会产生意想不到的后果，因此构建理想的客户体验需要克制。不要假设技术永远是答案，而是尝试问自己一个简单的问题：你会为你的家人和朋友做什么？

If you can answer that correctly, your customers will never leave, and that’s an experience any brand would love to have.
如果你能正确回答这个问题，你的客户将永远不会离开，这是任何品牌都希望拥有的体验。