1.4 billion people – learning from China’s urgent need for customer experience speed

The Chinese region of Shenzhen alone breeds 5000 start-ups per day – numbers that we can only dream of in Europe. Travelling to China feels like travelling to the distant future, and entering a world of possibilities and fresh inspiration.

There are many customer experience tips we can pick up from China, which is clearly investing all of its energy into becoming an awe-inspiring unstoppable force.

Let the data smooth things over

It is possible to remove friction in your company by knowing your customers so well that you can offer what they want before they even know they want it. Let their data tell you, in faster than real time, when your products and services will be required next.

DiDi, the Chinese Uber, make it their mission to use AI to find averages and predict where vehicles should be, even before people realise they need them. Services such as Uber have already taken so much friction out of transporting people, but DiDi is taking it to a whole new level.

And so are Ctrip, a tourism company that monitors and predicts where streams of tourists will want to go and when. They provide an enhanced customer experience by redirecting crowds if a popular destination is in danger of being oversaturated by tourists. With the fast-rising numbers of Chinese tourists, it is crucial to manage peaks in tourism to ensure that the experience isn’t spoilt for everyone.

This is an age where customers will stick to companies that are easy to interact with, whether it is on a product, service or communications level, so striving for convenience and zero-friction is crucial. By adapting your strategy towards combating friction, you will be keeping your company relevant in these challenging but exciting times.

Move at lightning speed

The Chinese really are the kings of speed. It doesn’t matter how smart or innovative your ideas or technology is, if you are slow to enter the market, others will beat you to it. One of the ways Chinese companies do this is through prediction.

Companies don’t have to move fast if they know where and when they will be needed by the consumer. The level of speed required will soon only be possible if you know what consumers want before they do. Someone once told me that the best goalkeepers in the world were not those who had the best technique, or those who were the fastest, but the ones who were able to predict where the ball would land before it did.

Be pragmatic

One of the things I love the most about Chinese innovators is their pragmatic way of thinking. Take, for instance, self-driving cars. We all know that technology has already evolved far beyond its surrounding context. Currently, as self-driving cars are not allowed on the open road, Chinese companies just look for applications that are allowed within this limited context. This could be automated shuttles bringing people from the car park to the entrance of a hospital, or a number of other applications within a closed circuit.

Ling is a great example of this. It is a robot company founded by top executives at Baidu, who began selling 10 different robots. When their reading robot Luka proved to be the most successful they put the others aside and focused on that one. They didn’t waste time analysing the market or putting a strategy into a long PPT,  they just focussed on the one that sold the most.

Prof. Steven Van Belleghem is an expert in customer focus in the digital world. He’s is an award-winning author, and his book Customers The Day After Tomorrow is out now. Follow him on Twitter @StevenVBe, subscribe to his videos at www.youtube.com/stevenvanbelleghem or visit www.stevenvanbelleghem.com