In 2018, Data Will Put the Human Back into Human Experience - Part 2

In this, the second part of the latest ina series exclusive to Data Makes Possible, Dr. Kirk Borne, Principal Data Scientist for Booz Allen Hamilton, adds onto his explanation of the value proposition of improved human experience in the digital enterprise. If you missed Part 1,read it here.

There is a lot of science in here! In Part 1, we mentioned the “nudge” theory of behavioral economics. We won’t elaborate on that, but recommend that topic to you for further investigation. We also mentioned the “physics” of good and bad experience, Journey Sciences (pioneered by ClickFox), and the law of user inertia. Two additional scientific approaches that we recommend are: dataify your mobile strategy, and develop a culture of experimentation.

People on the move are most likely engaging with your business on mobile devices. Therefore, if you are delivering content and services via apps, the great mobile experience that you intend to deliver must match that environment: apps and services must be natively mobile, more visual than textual, tailored to small-screen format, optimized for touch, swipe, and pinch interactions, with easy access to key features and essential content. Analyze the data of your users’ interactions (actions and reactions), and make the results of that data analytics actionable within your organization. Continuously improve based on your users’ mobile experience data.

Experimentation is key to getting it right. Someone once said, “Good judgment comes from experience; and experience comes from bad judgment.” I assume that they weren’t talking only about teenagers, but about life in general. That statement exactly explains the concept of model validation and refinement in machine learning, and it also applies to the scientific methodology of data science and statistical A/B testing. Find out what works and doesn’t work early and often, with small moves, by making adjustments quickly in an agile framework. That’s another reason to focus on small moves (which we discussed in Part 1) – it’s much easier to recover from and to refine small errors in your delivery.

Strategic failure is not an option, but tactical failure is how you learn to do things right. Ultimately, doing things right is not nearly as important as doing the right thing! That’s the equation for strategic success. And data makes that possible!

Years ago, I learned the 5 E’s of effective science education: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. With that in mind, I propose the 5 E’s to ease your entry into the Year of Experience: Encounter (create awareness among your stakeholders), Expectations (identify your stakeholders’ needs), Empathy (meet your stakeholders at their place of need), Engagement (generate interest and curiosity via data-informed experiences), and Emotion (apply sentiment analysis to discover how the experience made your stakeholders feel?). Remember that people might forget you, but won’t forget how they felt when they dealt with you.

Studies have shown that improved experience leads to increased loyalty and revenue. For example, a large survey of marketers found that 90% of them personalize the content that they deliver to their consumers. Another survey found that 40% of business professionals attending a digital workplace conference in 2017 listed employee experience as their top focus for the year. These organizations are doing this because it works: these activities improve the experience of business stakeholders, and that improves the organization’s own bottom line!

I hope that you are convinced by now that your organization should be participating in the experience economy, but if not, then take note of one more startling fact: another recent survey of consumers found that a whopping 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience! The message is clear: CX should be your customer data’s killer app!

Even small adjustments in personalization and relevance to individual stakeholders (as learned through digital signals and data analytics) can produce a big ROI. In this Year of Experience, small moves (nudges) can lead to big impacts – not just any small moves, but personalized moves.

When your digital business activities are required to move at the mad fast pace of incoming data, remember that the message is in the madness: everyone is moving fast and will want to have experiences that engage with them in a pleasant manner. Those experiences must not clash with their present needs in a cacophony of disconnected interactions. Rather, your stakeholders will be pleased by having experiences that are informed by the digital signals emanating from their life activities – experiences that resonate and keep perfect time with their current needs in a harmonious symphony of positive engagement.

Now, take your thoughts on The Year of Experience conversation to Twitter! Agree or disagree with Kirk’s ideas on user, customer, or employee experience? Want to tell us your story? Tweet @KirkDBorneusing the hashtag #datamakespossible right now!

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