Once again, Aarron Spinley SVP of the newly acquired Thunderhead (by Medallia), provides the kind of thought leadership that has some real meaning. He’s a paradigm for executives on how to be an internal thought leader who has an external impact. This piece is particularly germane since we are all at the stage of deciding whether the metaverse is nothing more than a. Facebook trying to save its own butt or b. the latest fast riser in the hype cycle (Remember Clubhouse?) or c. has some real substance that has to be accounted for in corporate/business planning in multiple ways? Me? I’m sticking to the DC Comics Multiverse. There, all the alternate universes have been fully resolved into a single universe. There’s something to be said for that. Take it away, Aarron. Four Key Principles for Executives and Marketers A lot of people who are watching the arrival of new terms like web3 and the metaverse have realised that this suggests yet another shift. Maybe even a big one. But like many things in life, it is not the thing itself, but the effects of the thing that we should focus on. That, and the repeatable, and sustainable, management of the thing. Once we understand that, anxiety fades. So, it is useful to understand that the metaverse is a bit like the second coming of technological capabilities that we have long recognised. In essence, it is the convergence of things like artificial reality and virtual reality to, perhaps finally, realise the intersection of the physical and digital realms that “Industry 4.0” inherently promised. Why is the metaverse only just now emerging? Because other enabling technologies – better cloud computing, broadband access, virtual currencies, collaboration tools et al – weren’t ready when metaverse-related tech first arrived. In short, the Metaverse represents the start of the shift from a 2D internet world, to a 3D one. Or so the marketing slogan goes. But while it is something old, it is also something new. Underestimate it at your peril. Most are expecting it to spawn whole new industries, to revolutionise commerce, the “creator economy” and, of course, the very nature of communication and collaboration both personally, and professionally. Ergo: Marketers and other customer professionals will have an opportunity to think differently — at least in execution — about how to interact with customers in completely new ways. Although, thinking differently, has often proved a stretch too far in an industry that chows down on buzzwords and loves to follow the pack. Here’s an example. Instead of calling a contact centre for a phone conversation, you or your avatar for that matter might be sitting in a booth with the avatar of the service agent talking through your problem. What are the ripple effects of that type of interaction? How would we consume that, relate to it, process it emotionally, or react to different stimuli within that context? There are a million use cases and ideas, but the really big question is this: How do we establish principles that allow us to harness the opportunities repeatably, and how do we do that safely? Hopefully, this helps. The Metaverse is a Service Layer Issue In my estimation, and depending on the category, the service layer accounts for over 90–98% of the interactions that any brand has with its customers. From the car park to the website, to the contact centre to the mobile app, and into a store experience (if you have one), these are all “services.” That means if we know what we are doing, our goal for all of them is to be as low-friction as possible, and utterly unmemorable. Yes, I know. Our industry is infatuated with the word, “experience.” But most of the time, those using the term are referring to service interactions because, in truth, much of the industry has no clue what the difference is, and has co-opted the word ‘experience’ to mean, well, everything. So be it. If you’re not clear on the demarcation between services and experiences, read this. But to understand where the metaverse will really move the needle for brands, and how to think about it, the distinction is important. Aarron Spinley’s” Engagement Stack” Now, there is a multitude of exotic ideas for brand activations and the like using the metaverse. These are clearly experiences. Equally, we should expect that some services when delivered through the metaverse will, for a short time, be also very experiential (memorable) in nature due to the novelty factor. But as the metaverse normalises this won’t sustain. So most opportunities for your company, simply because of the way an engagement stack works (see above) will present themselves in the service layer. And that means that you have to get your head around 2 key things: Journeys, and Choice. Dictation is Dead The mistake so many companies make is to apply old ideas to new surroundings. Case in point, many make the critical error of using the populist but dated idea of journey mapping in today’s world. They may not know it, because “engagement-literacy” is so low, but it fails abysmally. And it will be a royal cluster you-know-what in the metaverse. As a technique, and even as an evolving toolkit, this was an important approach to better understand customers for a fair while. Although the more accurate summation of the practice, its real intention if you like, was always to dictate their resulting buying journey — not to understand their journey in of itself. In the main, this worked, until somewhere around 2010–2014, depending on your view. You see, when journey mapping was popularised, it was off the back of work by Colin Shaw in 2002, who had originally coined it “moment mapping.” But in 2002 — a full twenty years ago as I write this — most brands were managing an average of just two or three channels. What followed was the explosion of the Internet, mobile, cloud, social media, and device proliferation, such that by the close of 2019, we found ourselves dealing with up to 100 channels
