حل بحران فوری: چگونه فن آوری دیجیتال می تواند تجربه مشتری را تغییر دهد  Solving the crisis of immediacy: How digital technology can transform the customer experience

1. What is the crisis of immediacy? In late 2013, Amazon introduced Mayday, a singleclick video chat solution that allows customers to interact with a remote tech support representative to solve problems with their tablets 24/7. The service allows customers to see the tech support person in a small window while the support person can watch what the customer is doing online and can interact with the device. According to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, it is ‘‘actually very similar to having someone next to you’’ offering tech support (Biggs, 2013). Solutions such as Mayday–—which provide the customer with real-time, personalized support through a remote expert–—have the potential to significantly shape how customer service is delivered going forward. With Mayday, Amazon has been able to beat its response time goal of 15 seconds or less with an average response time of 9.75 seconds (Shaul, 2014). The Mayday example illustrates the potential for today’s immersive digital technologies to transform the customer experience by delivering real-time, context-specific expertise when and where the customer needs it. We define the crisis of immediacy as the need for consumers to receive content, expertise, and personalized solutions in real time during their shopping experience. We are living in the age of the informed consumer; because consumers are comfortable with using self-service technologies, they are much better informed today about the products and services they intend to purchase. According to HubSpot (2011), 89% of U.S. Internet users search online before making a purchase, even when the actual purchase processitself is conducted at a local business. Therefore, consumers are expecting higher levels of service from the retailer throughout their purchase journey. Roughly 50% of U.S. online consumers will abandon their purchase if they cannot get quick answers to their questions (Leggett, Schoeller, Band, & Bookstein, 2013). Customers are increasingly becoming omnichannelshoppers, using multiple channels–—such as physical stores, websites, social platforms, and mobile apps–—to conduct a single transaction. It is estimated that 86% of global shoppers and 65% of U.S.-based shoppers currently shop across at least two channels (McPartlin & Dugal, 2012). Furthermore, online shoppers are spending more (Maxwell, 2013) and are more profitable (Graeber, 2013) when they use multiple channels.