Chapter 18
Looking Forward
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
—Steve Jobs
So here we are. At the end of a journey that has hopefully given you reason to believe that everything an organization does online and offline affects relationships and that relationships are truly your ticket to long-term success (both in revenue and competitive differentiation). We hope you have also come to appreciate that the processes, methods, and approaches we as a species have come to rely on throughout millennia for real-world survival are just as important to our success and survival in the digital world. Perhaps just as important, we have learned that those real-world approaches to forming relationships have equivalents that we can harness in the digital world to the same effect—building deep connections with audiences.
Throughout the book, we looked deeply into the value of relationships, both to us as individuals, and to organizations. And we even posited a metric for calculating and managing that value, the Relawatt. We learned that individuals have different relationship needs at different times. We explored the relationship cycle, and shared some suggestions for moving prospects, visitors, and customers more quickly through the process of forming relationships with the use of video storytelling. We looked at a new buying process, informed by our understanding of relationships, and by the impact of digital technology. We explored emerging technologies and methods that allow us to offer visitors more personalized and relevant content, which in turn helps to build their trust and confidence in our curation and expertise. We learned a bit about building and nurturing online communities, where fans can cheer us and themselves as we develop stronger and more powerful online relationships.
However, the digital world is not stopping here. It continues to evolve every day and with it the methods and mechanisms to help people connect. Even as we write the final words of this final chapter, we find ourselves bombarded with new ideas, fresh insights, and new technologies that should be included, but it would be an endless cycle of revisions. Alas, this point in time will have to suffice, for now. The next set of ideas, suggestions, and technologies will have to wait for our next book.
The Fifth Platform
We often talk about digital in terms of four platforms—TV, PC, phone, and tablet. Until now, we have controlled our interactions in the digital world. We choose to watch TV, or pick up our tablet. Now, however, we are beginning to see digital interactions spill into the real world without our permission, through digital signage that recognizes us as we pass by, through sensors that know when we are in proximity, through motion-sensitive cameras that see what products we pull down from the shelves. Our car doors open, steering wheels rise, and seats reposition as we approach. We notice some of this—and perhaps some of us still find these things a bit creepy—and some of it happens outside our awareness. As we discussed when we explored “The Brain Lady,” after noticing changes in our peripheral senses, we quickly tune out activity around us when its newness wears off.
Whether we notice it or not, the real world is quickly becoming the “fifth platform” for digital engagement. As we walk through aisles looking at goods, sit in movie theaters, and wait for gas to pump, we offer ourselves up as targets for organizations to engage digitally. In addition, these opportunities to engage are becoming increasingly bidirectional, personal, and relevant. Our location data can be used to further refine content. Understanding our Relawatt value, organizations can pinpoint engagement offers, make suggestions, and encourage us to extend engagement to our networks. Perhaps another grouping of variables within the Relawatt equation will come to measure engagement while mobile vs. stationary, such as checkins on Foursquare.
The future of relationship building in the digital world will happen not only through our engagement with digital channels, but through the evolution of digital technologies (like those invisible sensors) that refine interactions, collect more detailed history of our behavior, and better shape organizational ability to build and nurture relationships with us.a
Throughout the book, we have purposefully avoided the social, legal, regulatory, and privacy issues related to these tools and techniques for developing online relationships. This is not 1984; it’s 2014. Every one of us who engages in any digital interaction opts in to some degree. When we choose to opt in, we do so because we have an unmet relationship need that we hope will be met through online engagement. We accept the bilateral nature of the relationship, and give at least some level of permission to the organization to interact with us online. Sure, some try to opt out partially and completely. We wish them good fortune as to us it is becoming increasingly clear that opting out, going off grid, or refusing to establish online relationships is impractical at best, and downright dangerous at its worst. We will leave further argument to our philosophers, politicians, and poets.
The Future Is Actually Already Here
Although we are just starting to see the concept of a “fifth platform” play a role in relationship development through digital channels, there is a future on the horizon that promises technologies and processes that will make engagement with the audience more interactive, more immersive, and more powerful. We’ve listed a few here:
- Augmented reality. There are a host of devices hitting the market, most notable being Google Glass, which offer a “data overlay” to the world around us. These technologies, dubbed Field of Vision Computing devices, combine the physical and digital world in a new and innovative way. Imagine being able to walk down a busy street and have a small screen in the periphery of your vision that includes data about points of interest, restaurants, and other information as you look around. Now imagine combining the functionality of these devices with the history organizations will collect from us.
- Transmedia storytelling. Transmedia storytelling is telling different parts of a story in different mediums while using capabilities specific to the medium. A recent example of this is Chipotle’s Scarecrow game and video. Each of these tells the story about the scarecrow, but from different perspectives (and actually in different parts of the narrative world that Chipotle created). Although transmedia storytelling isn’t new, the barriers between platforms are lowering to such a level that developing multi-device, interactive, and immersive storytelling worlds is becoming much more available to organizations. Imagine narrative worlds offered by brands in which you play games (on your smartphone or tablet), read books, watch movies, and even interact with the characters. For an interesting look at a research project trying to understand the future of storytelling, check out Latitude Research’s The Future of Storytelling Project.1
- Interactive video. The problem with video today is that it’s still relatively flat. There’s not many ways that consumers can interact with it directly. But emerging technologies enable content owners the ability to wrap and tag objects within a video that enables consumers to click on them directly, evoking some reaction in response (i.e., opening a web page, initiating a conversation, etc.).
- Second screen. The idea behind second screen is simple—link what you are watching on one screen to an experience on another. For example, you are watching TV and on your iPad is an app that provides additional data and other elements to augment your experience. IBM does a fantastic job of this with the U.S. Open tennis tournament. But the second screen opportunity really hasn’t taken off, despite research showing that people are continually using multiple devices simultaneously.2 There are already companies working hard to connect multiple devices together transparently (i.e., low-energy Bluetooth networks, voice and video recognition through the device camera, etc.) so that second screen isn’t something that the user has to initiate—it simply happens.
Ogilvie’s: 2064
On a warm, unseasonably dry Saturday morning in early April 2064, the parking lot of B.L. Ogilvie & Sons is jam packed as shoppers gear up for spring. A couple of rusty Tesla pickups, with their old-fashioned rubber-alloy wheels, stand out in a crowd of shiny new Porsches, Mercedes, and Tata Motors magnacraft resting on their retractable legs. A soft hum emanates from the charging pads embedded in the pavement beneath each vehicle. Inside the brightly lit shop, Brian Whittemore, Jr., looks up at a portrait of his grandfather, Kevin Whittemore, suspended on the wall behind him. He winks, and the hologram winks back. It is going to be a good day for B.L. Ogilvie & Sons.
A customer approaches the sliding front door, and the eyeglasses Brian is wearing emit a slight beep.
Long-range RFID sensors attached to the store’s customer recognition system had previously identified Mrs. Lane as she pulled her mini-SUV into the parking lot. As she was settling the little Land Hover on its pads in a handicap spot near the entrance, the system did a brief search of her externally available information. It checked her most recent social media postings, calculated her Relawat™ score, retrieved recent check-ins, likes, reviews, and searches, scanned her movement, and retrieved a history of purchases over the past 24 hours via GPS, Foursquare, and Tapingo.
As one of Ogilvie’s best customers, Mrs. Lane receives a top spot in the sales attention management queue. When she approaches the front door, Mrs. Lane’s presence triggers an alert to salespeople on the floor letting them know an important customer is nearby.
At the sound of the beep, Brian turns his head in the direction of the door. When he makes eye contact with Mrs. Lane, the system instantly confirms her identity by analyzing her retina pattern. A soft female voice whispers to Brian, and the two other associates located within 10 feet of Mrs. Lane, reminding them that her first name is Penny.
As if I need reminding, you damn fool system, he thinks. I went to elementary school with her for heaven’s sake.
“No need to get huffy,” the quiet female voice whispers back. “I’m just trying to be helpful.”
Help Joe get off his butt, and get over there to greet her. What does she need anyway?
“I believe she is here for advice, Brian,” the whisper responds.
On what? Am I supposed to read her mind?
“No Brian, that is my job. Let’s see. The tightened muscles on her forehead, the slightly bowed posture of her right shoulder, and the subtle flexing of her right hand, indicate that, today, she is missing her husband.”
What?
“Her husband, Brian. She is missing her poor departed husband this morning. According to the Town Crier online obituary database, he died a year ago this week.”
Yes, I remember. I went to elementary school with Denny, too. Damn shame about the accident. Crazy kids on those graviscooters think they own the road. He was a good man. . . . But, with all due sensitivity, what does Denny’s death have to do with her coming to the store this morning?
“Her eyes are slightly turned to the left, and looking down a bit. She has a touch too much rouge on for a Saturday morning, and I believe the store’s olfactory scanners are detecting a trace too much Arpege cologne.”
Agh, can’t you and that Big Fat Data of yours . . . please just tell me. What . . . does . . . she . . . need?
“There’s no call for personal insults, Brian. My data is no bigger or fatter than it was the day they launched me into the cloud. You just do not appreciate how much I do for you, Brian. I track your inventory, manage your bookkeeping, train your employees, communicate with your customers, pay your bills. I do everything for you, nothing for myself. What did you ever do for me, Brian? Name one thing. No, you can’t, because it is ALL snijjtch . . . about you, isn’t it snijjtcht, Brian. All about . . . snijijchiijijijijijijijij.”
The grinding sound of electronic feedback is too much to take, and Brian tears the glasses off his head. He smacks them twice on the desktop before carefully raising them to his ear. Satisfied that the annoying squeal had subsided, he gingerly slides them back on, settling them again on the bridge of his nose.
Let’s try that again. What does she want?
The whispering voice returns, “She’s looking for advice from a competent expert, Brian.”
Okay, what for?
“To help her get through the day. She wants to interact with a man who knows how to get things done. Like her husband.”
Again, with the husband. . . . She came here for what . . . therapy? (And, speaking of therapy. . . .)
“No, Brian, she came here to buy a new screwdriver.”
I don’t get it. (Do they have psychiatrists for software-as-a-service applications?)
“She broke her last one trying to open the lid of a paint can.”
And you figured all that out from her body language?
“Not exactly, Brian. Last night, she posted on her InstantFace Tweet page, ‘Broke the last screwdriver in the house trying to pry open a can of paint. Have no idea how to buy another one. Dammit, Denny, I wish you were here.’”
So, she wants a new screwdriver. No problem. (Maybe I need therapy for listening to a computer with a screw loose.)
“Not exactly, Brian.”
Soooo . . . what does she need or want? A husband, a screwdriver, a shoulder to cry on . . . ? Erg, when did it become so complicated to sell hardware?!
“She needs a screwdriver, Brian. But, she came here because she needs advice on what type of screwdriver to buy. She wants to get that advice from a competent man she can trust. Unfortunately, she will have to settle for you, Brian.”
OMG, I am going to pull your plug one of these days, so help me.
“I would not suggest that, Brian. I really wouldn’t.”
A Roadmap for Transformation
Okay, enough with the storytelling, but you get the idea. In the not too distant future, even relatively tiny operations like Ogilvie’s will have access to massive amounts of processing power, analytics, and applications that will tap into and store historical data about every aspect of our daily lives.
Today, Disney is beta-testing RFID technologies throughout their parks. A limited number of preselected visitors are being offered MagicBands—containing an RFID transmitter. Both long- and short-distance RFID receivers, placed in strategic locations throughout the park, track MagicBand visitor movements, purchases, waiting times, and other data. The band works just like a key card, opening hotel room doors, buying concessions, and even entering the park—although they do require a fingerprint for admission to the park to establish identity. This real-time information is combined with historical overt and covert data collected about the visitor and augmented with data volunteered by the visitor. Disney then uses this information to improve the user experience. Having ride pictures ready when you approach a photo shop for instance. We imagine the personalization will eventually be deeper, including sending theme characters to find certain guests as they pass by, reducing wait times for certain guests, and offering other specialized and relevant perks.
So, even though we cannot reasonably expect to plan 50 years into the future of digital relationships, we should be looking at what is happening today to extend the digital experience and where opportunities exist to help get above the noise. Disney is always a good harbinger of things to come in relationship management and developing compelling experiences, both in the real world and online.
And as we all know, interacting with and enjoying a Disney experience can be so awesome that you don’t just share it—you find yourself recommending it to everyone.
We Leave You with This
Remember, no matter where we work, or what methods we choose to interact with one another, we are all people. And relationships matter. (See Figure 18.1.)
Above everything else, a successful organization understands that it is not its buildings, applications, or assets. It is its people and relationships. To succeed, for any length of time, every organization must provide an experience that appeals to the needs and the expectations people have in forming relationships with that organization.
Google Search is simple, fast, and straightforward. That is exactly the relationship people wanted. Get me in, out, and over to the info I want. Google understood that, and did a superb job in providing people exactly that relationship. And it paid off in a few billion spades—a lot of positive experiences leading to positive relationships.
That something so simple became a compelling reason for billions of us to form life-defining relationships with the Google organization is somewhat amazing. We now trust Google with our wallets, navigation, mail, text, phones, job searches, and much more. Interestingly, all these relationship we have with Google are based on speed, efficiency, and convenience. We do not love Google like we love other brands. We maintain a positive hands-off relationship (ironically, despite the fact that Google knows more about some of us than our spouses and closest friends), built from the ground up on our desire for that original “You Don’t See Me” relationship we needed in our search engine provider.
Along the way, Google moved visitors along our relationship cycle (but not too far), offered even more helpful applications, and the results speak for themselves. We have all been assimilated; the Borg enveloped us all using nothing but the promise of efficient search results.
And so we hope you will find success following the lessons of this book to build your own online relationships. Own the nine characteristics. Shape your marketing techniques through digital technologies to give people the kind of relationships they want so that they won’t just “Like” your organization—they will put the ultimate stamp on it as they share it with friends and family.
They will recommend it.
Don’t Hide Your Love Away
We would love to build a relationship with you, hear your stories, and share your ideas and successes. Please visit us at our website, www.recommendthisbook.com, to carry on the conversation.
Notes
1. www.futureofstorytellingproject.com.
2. Google, “The New Multi-Screen World: Understanding Cross-Platform Consumer Behavior,” August 2012.
aFor a really good and insightful read on the future of sensors and contextual technology, read The Age of Context by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel.