Can an iPad Mini Make Good Customer Service?

Techcrunch thinks an iPad Mini will make your customer service better. It won’t.

The iPad mini is now available and Apple fanatics are treating it as the invention of the year. It’s not. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an Apple user. I use it at work, at home, I own an iPad, iPhone, and am writing this on a Macbook Air.

I love my technology, just ask my family. But Techcrunch writer Darrell Etherington, recently shared that the iPad mini somehow will deliver huge potential for the customer service industry.

It has a lot of potential to be an even more impressive player…The iPad mini’s big brother has done a good job of making headway in businesses and customer service, but the iPad mini has a strong chance to help drive those accomplishments even further.

It won’t.

Unless you already get the definition of customer service and are creating a great customer experience.

If your customer service is bad, just adding an iPad Mini proves you don’t know what you’re doing.

Like actors on a stage, technology can’t replace the human element in a good customer service experience. Behind it all, humans have to deliver emotionally-connecting words and actions. Even if you’re an online-only organization, at some point in your process, humans have to determine the right words, processes, and deliverables. You need to optimize technology to make a great customer experience. Technology can’t do that for you. Saying it will is like saying that a stage, lighting, and props make a broadway play. It doesn’t.

The role of technology in the customer service experience

Technology is effective at ENHANCING or SCALING the experience. Technology is a FRAMEWORK for the experience, not the experience itself. It’s a VEHICLE to deliver the experience, not the EXPERIENCE ITSELF.

Technology is a component. Remember it when you’re planning your experience, like Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin, does with his 7 steps for customer service.