By Barb Kachelski, CAE
When you think Harvard Business School, you might think buttoned-down professors. Not so Associate Professor Frances Frei who a fellow CUESer described as being very much like Ellen DeGeneres. She reminded me of a funky televangelist on speed, as she presented two cases yesterday in my Advanced Leadership Institute class, a program offered jointly at HBS by CUES and the California Credit Union League.
Frei, who focuses on technology and operations management, stressed three keys to introducing technology successfully into services:
1. You have to be helpful before you can be intrusive.
She used General Motors’ OnStar as an example. OnStar staff are viewed as helpful, providing help in emergencies or when drivers have locked their keys in the car. This initial positioning helps customers to trust OnStar with data about their whereabouts, which is generated by the global positioning software on which the service is based.
2. You have to introduce technology at a rate consumers can absorb.
Frei suggested that BMW 7 Series autos violate this rule. Since BMW was winning the "technology race," the German automaker installed “it all” in the 7 Series. Reviewers and drivers were overwhelmed with the technology, and had difficulty using it.
3. Framing matters.
Sony has designed a robot dog called AIBO. It is one step on the company's quest to provide a robot to do housework. The drawback? AIBO doesn't function perfectly. So Sony has positioned the AIBO as being a fun robot that-like a real dog-does not consistently behave. Initial reviewers find its lack of consistence to be an endearing personality trait!
Frei also covered framing in a Progressive auto insurance case. She said Progressive has onsite claim settlement because it busts fraud. The company frames this as a service enhancement. Progressive’s comparison quotes come across as great service as well. The benefit to Progressive is that it allows them to send expensive customers to their competitors.
Barb Kachelski, CAE, is CUES' SVP/member knowledge and chief information officer.
Read CUES CEO Fred Johnson's reports from last year's Advanced Leadership Institute in this archive
