Every now and then a trend picks up steam and starts to become a go to solution within a vertical and sometimes across verticals as well. Example: Hot these days (or may be dying already!!) is the 360 degree view of the customer. The ability of an organization to be able to see all customer data points in a simple connected framework.
The advantages of a comprehensive view are obvious, reminds me of the perennial problem we face in India, where without any centralized view all government departments do their bit in pieces – so a fresh road is laid today ( possibly because election dates are coming !!!) and the same road is dug out the very next day for laying fibre optic cables. (a la focus on connectivity is a must!!).
A customer service rep not aware of the loyalty status of the customer, using a hard tactic to upsell where the customer doesn’t ever make a purchase in that department. A lot of these dots can be connected and improved upon if – information is made available to all, made relevant and contextual. Which is achieved keeping customer at the centre and creating a 360 degree view of him.
I think the current mobile operating systems are designed to work in silos, that’s purely because the way the app ecosystem is designed, app developers view their own apps in singularity. Meaning the customer interaction with the app and the need that the app is solving for is an end to itself, which is not really the case. What was the last time you unlocked your phone and given the context did not interact with more than one app. Think about it?? Ever or never.
The current operating systems have this flaw. Although the systems are intelligent, they are so only within their own app universe. So a Google now (I love Google…wait a sec…Alphabet!!) makes me smile every now and then, But then it’s app integration is miles away (atleast I haven’t yet felt the moment). For me this integration today is limited to Feedly (for the stuff I read ) and Wynk (for the stuff I listen to) this could be just me!!.
The mobile OS of the next iteration will have to create an open App platform, sort of like a 360 degree view of the app data exchange. This to me is the next frontier. To create a completely intelligent system that is able to interact with me with a complete context will have to listen to data exchange at all times.
More like a appograhic profile of a customer!!!
Ashish Rishi, AVP Analytics
Follow: @rishilost
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