July 2016 has seen a new social gaming and entertainment application top the global app charts. The Pokémon Go application has been the leading entertainment apps used, toppling Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and Twitter inter alia. The interactions on the app toppled those of Twitter and Instagram which had been consistently leading in terms of user interactions. The Pokémon Go app has indeed been leading app for the most of the second half of 2016.
However, the experience that users have had when it comes to the app differed and in some instances as concerns and incidences around safety and unreliable connection to their server had been raised. Data from Survey Monkey Intelligence, reviewed by Business Insider, has Pokémon Go’s weekly active user count in the US peaking on July 24 at around 40 million and sitting at 28 million on August 18. Survey Monkey Intelligence also says Pokémon Go’s monthly active user count, and US downloads, have both peaked and are trending down.
As a result of this finding, here are three winning tips to consider when designing your strategy for managing customer expectations in your line of business:
Effective Communication
Effective communication in managing customer expectations is what oil is to the running of a car engine. Mistakes and oversight can happen in the different touch points of a customer journey. A pain point for customers is usually when that breaker is not properly communicated or corrected. It is, therefore, crucial to crafting a clear communications plan for a customer journey. Interestingly, a study conducted by Econsultancy revealed that Live chats have the highest satisfaction levels for any customer service channel, with 73%, compared with 61% for emails and 44% for phones. It, therefore, suggests that effective communication is an integral part of managing the expectations of customers, particularly if the expectation and lived experience of the customer is not aligned.
Realistic Promises
In an attempt to lure potential customers towards products and services companies can easily oversell the product or service and that poses the risk of customers having an underwhelming customer experience and upset most customers as their expectations were not met. The overreliance on a great marketing campaign only to find that the experience that customers go through leaves little to be desired amplifies the importance of making promises that are realistic and that can be kept. Promises that are within the competency of your team or business.
Prioritise
Given the scale at which the Pokémon Go application blew up, certainly one of the main considerations would be the ability to manage big data and excessive use of the software from far reaching areas in the world. If at one point you have to prioritize between the ability to manage big data and usage in widespread areas, then as a business, a call would have to be made as to which one is the most important service characteristic for the purpose of your particular product or service and communicate that to the users in an attempt to adequately manage expectations. At every stage of the customer journey, an opportunity cost exercise would have to be applied in order to reach economies of scale, resulting in appropriately managed customer expectations that can be easily met.