Thimon de Jong: in the network society people are searching for digital balance
The more digitalized the world gets, the more real human contact and personal approach will be appreciated, said Whetston Strategic Foresight’s director Thimon de Jong.
,,For years large corporations have tried to digitalize everything. For example the help desk has moved online and we don’t have real people there chatting anymore, but we have a robot to do that. Recent studies have showed that despite the option to do everything digitally, client satisfaction has decreased – people actually want a real person to interact with them,” explained de Jong.
Thimon de Jong says that clients like the personalized service. A good example is the customer support system of Amazon Kindle Fire tablet where you press the Mayday button when the questions or problems occur. That will create a video conversation with the representative of Amazon who will reply averagely in 8 seconds. ,,Clients are helped by a real person, who you can see with your own eyes. People like that,” said de Jong, who knows that Mayday button is also being used to ask totally irrelevant questions. Still Amazon doesn’t feel bad about it, because their goal is to create the contact with their clients – they are digital company who want to interact with people.
Digital balance – what it is and how to achieve it?
Similar to businesses, interaction between people is also becoming more and more digital. ,,The proportion of an eye-to-eye conversations has decreased. People can’t stay away from their phones even when they are spending time with their friends. Despite listening to their companion, people are looking at their smartphone screens. In English there is even a word for that – phubbing,” said de Jong.
Being constantly online and reachable has created the situation where once in a while, some people want to have a rest from technology. For example, young people have started to use phone stacks in order to avoid the situations when everyone is on their phones all the time. That means that phones will be placed in the middle of the table in a tower and the first person who is going to take a look at their phone is paying the bill or washing the dishes. This is one way how young people are trying to take small breaks from technology.
,,That is what digital balance means – people take breaks from technology. They understand that while being constantly online and getting notifications and messages, it is hard to concentrate, study, work and build relationships,” explained de Jong. ,,These principles can be integrated into business very well. Some may think that to the only way to reach young people is to use digital channels. This is not entirely true. You have to find that touchpoint, because people still want physical contact. Our brain works in a whole different way, when the conversation is eye-to-eye,” added de Jong.
Digital balance in business
It is a popular belief that being reachable and having the opportunity to work anytime and anywhere will raise the effectivity. Still, it has been proven that it is not the best idea. ,,Many companies in Germany, for example BMW, Puma and E.ON have set in their work policy that after 7pm, on the weekends or being on a vacation, the server doesn’t let any e-mails go through. As a result to that employees are 75% happier, and when they are happier, they are also more productive,” said Thimon de Jong, who emphasized that even though digitalisation is very important, people’s happiness is more important.
Jānis Meistars,
journalist
