In a digital world, no vendor or service developer has complete control over how their service is delivered to the customer’s device, yet everyone cares deeply about the path taken.
The simplicity, coherence and performance of the digital connection influence how the digital service reaches the customer and how it is ultimately experienced.
If the customer experiences any issues, it may affect their ability to use or transact with the service. This can translate into negative perceptions or sentiments expressed about the digital service and/or towards its creator or provider.
This is why governments are so concerned about how their digital service delivery mechanisms reach their constituents. As more public service providers move to ‘one-stop-shop’ digital portals and online-based delivery models, there is pressure to ensure that citizens’ experience with these services is fast, frictionless and available.
It’s also why employers with hybrid or remote workforces are concerned about end-to-end digital delivery, as any flaw in the chain impacts employee productivity. Sentiment toward company-provided resources is also known to impact the company’s ability to attract and retain talent. These are both good reasons to ensure an optimal digital workplace.
Developers and operators of web and mobile applications also attach importance to end-to-end digital services. They can create the most incredible in-app experiences and features, but the customer experience is only as good as the least performing piece of infrastructure between the application server and the customer. A beautiful or elegantly coded application is nothing if it doesn’t perform as expected.
Optimizing the end-to-end service chain to complement digital design and usage features is essential for all digital service owners.
Many performance optimizations have already been achieved. Governments, employers and app developers have optimized the infrastructure under their direct control and can also use third-party infrastructure, such as a CDN or VPN, to try to bring the optimized experience even closer to the customer.
The root cause of any remaining performance issues likely lies in a common blind spot for digital service owners and customers alike: the last-mile connection to a home’s front door and the wired or wireless distribution of signal and data traffic once inside.
Lead Solutions Analyst for Cisco ThousandEyes.
Which brings a better view of the last mile
Digital service providers, governments, employers and app owners all have a keen interest in the last mile, because without insight into this part of the end-to-end delivery mechanism there will always be suspicions about its contribution or role in causing performance degradation. .
Suspicions about the last mile are not unfounded. For example, in countries where retail Internet services are bundled with consumer equipment (CPE), such as a combo router/modem, this CPE hardware may use outdated WiFi protocols or struggle to propagate signals acceptably indoors. . It’s a similar story for mobile connectivity: In recent years we’ve seen the rise of home boosters and other ways to improve signal propagation in buildings. Again, this is because it is often not a problem to deliver bandwidth just outside the building, but it is difficult to maintain those performance characteristics once you get past the front door of the building.
If there is no visibility beyond the physical front door, all that is known if an outage occurs in the last mile is that the end point is inaccessible: the customer, employee or citizen cannot connect for unknown reasons. Digital service owners remain in the dark about what causes it. Responses to guesswork or limited insight can only yield so much.
In reality, all parties to a digital transaction can benefit from better visibility into the last mile.
Optimal visibility
Optimal visibility into the home or office can increase the likelihood of identifying the cause of a performance problem. Visibility makes it possible to determine if there is a carrier-specific issue in that local area or region, such as a fiber cut or a cell tower problem. Combined with insight into other parts of the service chain, the digital service owner suddenly has the granularity to triangulate the source of the problem and assign responsibility to it.
This can be used to inform the customer or citizen of the appropriate party to pursue a resolution with and have the evidence in hand to work with them to resolve the degradation or performance issue.
Or, in circumstances where there is an increased “service-level relationship” – between the digital transaction operator and the customer, or an internet service provider and the customer – the operator or telecom provider may agree to take a more active or leading role play in the solution. , even if the problem is part of the supply chain they don’t own.
While they can’t resolve the issue directly, they have enough telemetry evidence to escalate the issue to a downstream provider and get a resolution on the customer’s behalf.
For an operator, this more active role allows them to more effectively manage the performance of their end-to-end digital service. It also moves them out of a compartmentalized, transactional relationship and into something deeper and more valuable.
This is the essence of improving the customer experience of digital services today.
We have presented the best CRM for small businesses.
This article was produced as part of Ny BreakingPro’s Expert Insights channel, where we profile the best and brightest minds in today’s technology industry. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Ny BreakingPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing, you can read more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro