Not your grandma’s rotary phone: How industry change impacts customers
Most people don’t love change, and if the technology they are using "works just fine,” they might get in a huff if change is forced upon them.
But why do things need to change? There are some wicked smart people out there who think of new ways to do old things. These new ways simplify architectures, automate processes, provide cost savings, and almost always provide customers something better, stronger, and faster (even if they don’t think they want it).
Generally, an industry change forces customers to adapt. But here are a couple examples of when sweeping technology changes resulted in negligible customer impact:
Rotary dial to touch-tone phone: Industry moved from pulse (rotary) to tone (touch-tone) technology
Tube televisions to flat-screen: Industry moved from analog (tube TV) to digital (flat-screen) technology
In both examples, the conceptual use of these devices didn’t change. The newer technology phone and television still functioned mostly in the same way; there wasn’t anything too challenging for the consumer to understand. However, these changes required massive adjustments behind the scenes. Every company and third-party company associated with these industries had to overhaul their operations, but the consumer was (mostly) blissfully unaware.
I call these changes single dip: all back-end changes.
The more common scenario with industry change, however, impacts both the customer and the company — double dip! In the technology space, it is extremely easy to become steeped in tasks and miss managing the customer impact. But the customer impact is the most important part of change in a double dip change scenario. Customers don’t have to love the change being rolled out, but they’ll accept it and even forgive technical challenges if they understand it.
I consider the four areas shown (at minimum) to be fundamental to any double dip change: Program Management, Technical Management, Customer Management, and Ongoing Care and Management. Though each are equally important, Customer Management is your money step. Jill, isn’t the money step when you reach the point of making or saving money? It is, but just like cloud and streaming terms have been mangled, I’m going to mangle money step to mean the point at which your customers accept, trust, and understand change. If you don’t think that’s making or saving you money, you’re mistaken.
The Trojan Horse is a term I use when rolling out change nobody wants. If you’re leading an organization and you need to replace all desk phones with virtual phones (this is an example I’ve lived — twice), you need to build a Trojan Horse adoption strategy to maneuver customers over to the new technology.
In the desk phone replacement scenario, here’s an example of customer types and hints on how to manage them:
There are techniques to manage each customer type above. My favorite group to work with is the 6% (more on this in my first blog post). As a leader, I’ve learned that the sooner these folks have a chance to be heard and air grievances, the more successful you’ll be with implementation. Having lived through this change with two different virtual telephone platforms, I can tell you dividing up your customer base into manageable categories is key to your success.
But, Jill, how did the change from desk phones to virtual phones actually go? In my experience, this change was a big physical and psychological change for customers. We removed a device everyone knew how to use (they literally grew up physically pushing buttons on a device to place a call). Hearing a phone ring through their computers and trying to retrain their brains on how to answer a phone call had the potential to make their minds melt. The short answer is that it went okay, but we were ahead of our time.
I do have one fun story to share: One of the lawyers came to me mid-transition and told me she hated the move to virtual phones. You know what she hated? That she couldn’t slam her phone down into the cradle — repeatedly — when she was upset. We both laughed, and I offered to let her keep a desk phone that wasn’t plugged in so she could slam it down all day long. She decided she could adjust.
Often the struggles our customers face with technology changes have nothing to do with technology; they have to do with an emotional connection, a psychological impact, or a longing to keep things simple. Put your arm around them (post-COVID!), listen, and work to earn their trust.
Terms to remember:
Single dip change: Impact on back-end with negligible impact on front-end/customer
Double dip change: Impact on back-end and front-end/customer
Money step: The point at which your customers accept, trust, and understand change
Trojan Horse adoption strategy: How you’re going to get your customers to accept change they don’t want
— Jill P.
Contributors:
Edits by Elyse Goldberg
Graphics by Abby Wright - Little Red Cartoons
