Are Your Digital Platforms Wasting Your Customers’ Time?

No one wants digital tools that waste their time. We all want digital experiences to offer time well spent. People engage when smart tools understand them, their situation, and the jobs they want done. But too many companies today are still building digital platforms that waste people’s time. So, what should companies be doing differently? Instead of “moments”, focus on “modes” — the mindset and set of behaviors that people get into temporarily to get a job done; for example, we can be in work mode one moment, and mommy/daddy mode the next. When digital tools can ascertain what mode a customer is in, the intelligence of the tools grows. When people use solutions that recognize their modes, they become more empowered, feel like the tool understands their situation, and feel like their time is well spent. Companies that understand digital context can vastly increase customer engagement. To do so, they need to understand four different types of experiences their tools can yield, ranging from not-smart (technology that just wastes your time) to genius (technology that ultimately feels like time well invested).