By Evan Carroll

Today’s car wash owner/operators are faced with the same question all businesses struggle to answer: To best serve our customers, do we choose high-tech or high-touch?

The answer is “yes.”

Rather than choosing one over the other, there is a better way. Do both! Technology can empower us to be more human with our customers.

We shouldn’t be looking at using technology to replace the human touch. We should be putting technology behind people – helping people help our customers, and making customers feel like people instead of numbers. This is how technology helps us be more human.

Businesses today can leverage high-tech solutions that help them develop high-touch interactions to create customer experiences that are better – better for the customer, better for their employees, and better for their bottom line. That’s a win-win-win. And that’s how you can win-win-win, by using technology to be more human in all of your customer experiences.

WINNING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE BATTLE

Customer experience is the new battleground for competitive advantage. Today’s customers expect more than ever before, thanks to what’s known as the Amazon Effect. Amazon has raised the bar on customer expectations by redefining customer experiences and setting a new price for admission, as it were, in every competitive landscape.

Because of Amazon, customers expect all companies to operate in similar fashion. They expect all companies to know and understand their individual needs, and they expect all companies to meet those needs with precision and speed. And the Amazon bar only continues to get higher as Amazon continues to innovate.

The result? Your customers today expect a personalized, quick and consistent customer experience. And if they don’t get it, they move on.

So what does this mean for you?

First, to understand your customers’ needs and personalize their service requires “info-sense,” a term coined by TrendWatching.com. In business-speak, info-sense is using data and technology to develop insights, and putting those insights into action in real time. It’s your ability to give your customers exactly what they need when they need it.

Info-sense is a game-changer for upselling and creating loyalty. This is good news for businesses, because it typically costs one-tenth the amount of money to upsell a current customer than acquire a new one. Clearly there’s always a need for new customer acquisition, but there’s a definitive shift when you can get more from those you already have.

Second, it’s critical for all business owners to understand response time is mission-critical for customers. Whether they’re buying, shopping or inquiring, they want what they want, and they want it now – or at least as fast as possible. Today’s on-demand customers just don’t like waiting.

Finally, customers expect all of their interactions with you to be seamless, organized, connected – harmonized.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to deliver Amazon-level service to be successful. But you do need to be aware of increasing customer expectations – so you can stay one step ahead.

USING TECHNOLOGY TO BE MORE HUMAN

Technology is to blame for customers’ increasing expectations. But we can use technology to stay ahead of those expectations and help us be more human. What it comes down to is this: We need to let technology do what technology does best, so people can do what people do best.

How do we do that? The IBM study reveals three keys to success which align with three core strategies for keeping up with your customers’ ever-growing demands and leveraging technology to be more high-touch: Relationships, Responsiveness and Readiness.

The IBM study tells us your customers want you to understand their individual needs – that’s all about the relationship you have with each customer. The foundation of every good customer relationship is data. Use data to help your customers feel like people, not numbers. It can be as simple as saying, “I see you chose the XYZ wash the last time you were here, would you like to do that again?” Or “It’s been three months since your last wax, can we do that for you today?” The data empowers you to customize and personalize your human-to-human customer experiences in meaningful ways.

There are lots of ways to collect data. One of them is through human interaction – with notes stored in a techy relationship management tool. Another is through tracking sales. Yet another is by using loyalty programs, which are built to track – and reward – customer behavior. Loyalty programs are actually relationship programs.

The IBM study also underscores the importance of responsiveness. Is technology improving your response times, so your customers stay satisfied and happy? This could be online or in-app scheduling to reduce wait times or allow your customers to choose a preferred service tech. It could be an auto-pay feature from a smartphone app, to make the payment process speedier and more efficient. Both of these solutions can also free up more time for your service team to do more servicing and less processing. Remember: Let technology work to help people do what people do best.

One emerging trend in the car wash industry is taking responsive to client needs to a whole new level. On-demand car care brings washing and detailing to the customer’s door. There’s no line, and there’s no waiting, because service is completed while the customer is busy at home or at work. It demonstrates a high level of responsiveness to serving time-strapped customers. For those who have a difficult time making time to get their vehicles detailed, this is the ultimate “We’ve got you” response.

Lastly, the IBM study shows us that your customers expect a smooth, harmonized customer experience. From start to finish, at every visit and every location, customers expect seamless connectivity. Technology is your connectivity driver and helps prepare you to deliver the experience. It’s all about readiness. When you put technology-driven systems and processes in place, you’ll be ready for that moment when your customer needs you.

How can you be tech-ready to make your customer’s experience the best it can be in the moment? One way is with point-of-sale payment options, like a kiosk, pay station or smartphone app. Or eliminate point-of-sale payment processes with a monthly membership program – ideal for meeting the needs of frequent washers. Another way to use tech to benefit customer experience could be text notifications of best times for a no-wait service. And don’t forget about relationship programs. How about proactively offering and applying loyalty-related discounts, rather than waiting for customers to claim them?

It’s no accident that the 3 Rs – Relationship, Responsiveness, Readiness – all begin with the letters RE. “Re” is a Latin-based prefix. It literally means “again and again.” You can’t do each of these things once and expect results. This also isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it plan – you have to keep raising the bar. To be successful and stay competitive, you have to deliver better customer experiences again, and again, and again.

Using technology to be more human will help you create better customer experiences that result in happy, loyal customers. That’s win #1 for customers. Empowering your employees to leverage technology to serve customers will make them more satisfied and engaged. That’s win #2 for your employees. Finally, happy customers and happy employees will have a direct impact on your income and profitability. That’s win #3 for your bottom line. That’s the win-win-win. And that’s how you can win-win-win by using technology to be more human in all of your customer experiences.

Evan Carroll has appeared in major news outlets including The New York Times, CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’s Fresh Air, The Atlantic and Popular Science. His books, keynotes, and workshops provide a human-centric view of emerging issues in technology and business. You can find Evan online at www.evancarroll.net.