I am going to talk about my experience using a product called Google Pay. Google Pay is a digital payment method for cashless transactions between a buyer and vendor. It has partnerships with several retail enterprises (Starbucks, Subway, Whole Foods etc.) and can also be used to transfer money between two individuals. It is a very versatile product and is positioning consumers all over the world to shift towards digital money. It also has a lot of competitors such as Apple Pay, Venmo and Chase Pay. Thus, understanding the consumer experience or operationalizing it is critical to ensure successful adoption and usage of the product.

There are four major steps to effectively operationalize the customer experience are as below (Paul Hagen, 1to1media):

1. Engaging the ecosystem with a strategic vision: Painting a picture of what the product intends to do (or solve) in the minds of the target consumer is essential to get them interested and even give the product a thought.
2. Aligning the offering to consumer process: It is essential to understand the way the user interacts with the product and how every feature evokes a certain emotion or response. Each of these responses needs to be measured and leveraged in order to create a positive relationship between the product and the user.
3. Enabling customer support system: Too often digital products are made self-sufficient and human assistance free. While the intention is to provide a seamless, easy to do experience, it backfires because customers may like an automated experience for mundane tasks but they demand human interaction for meaningful and unique issues (who likes talking to a machine?!). Empowering a strong support system for assistance when needed is critical to ending the experience on a high note.
4. Using analytics to distill consumer insights: In the age of data, this is hardly a surprise. Data-rich companies are at the forefront of their industries. Using actionable insights developed from this data will aid the optimization of the consumer experience, both in the physical and emotional sense.

With these steps in mind, let’s take a look at how Google Pay operationalizes the consumer experience. Based on the way I interact with this digital-consumer product, I have come up with another 4 steps (they all come to me in fours!) to break down the aspects of the interaction and responses.

These steps are the major hurdles towards any good digital experience. They all trigger an emotional or sentimental reaction from me, which I will elaborate below. What is interesting that these steps can be used to explain a much broader product category as well.

Awareness and Understanding: When I first heard of Google Pay, it immediately clicked. That’s because Apple Pay had already existed. So, although they didn’t have a first mover advantage, they certainly didn’t have to do a lot to explain what the product was and what it did. Naming it that way was quite shrewd. The logo’s look quite similar too (see below). It invoked an immediate understanding and needed no further explanations. Well played, Google.

Consumer Habit and Incentive: I believe this is the single biggest challenge in this entire process. We as consumers are so used to pulling out wallets to transact in cash or with cards that digital payment methods feel awkward. There is a lot of inertia in adopting these new mobile channels. I only started using Google Pay when I was convinced that the effort to use it (downloading the app, signing up and linking my credit cards etc.) was outweighed by the value proposition it offered. A great use case for me is when (actually if) I go to the gym. I carry my phone (because Spotify!) but don’t want to carry my wallet. I can still purchase my spinach, peanut butter, and pineapple smoothie if I have Google Pay. That’s the value proposition for me! I’ll go to any lengths to facilitate a wallet-free, post-gym smoothie experience. This invokes a sense of freedom and a desire in me. Another aspect of using a product like this is to actually remember to use it.  I for one will completely forget that I have Google Pay even when I visit a shop where it is accepted. It’s a reflex to reach for your wallet when you make a purchase and digital payment platforms continue to struggle with this problem.

Technology Experience: Since this is the digital age and I am a millennial from the supposed “me” generation, I am super critical of the user interface of any digital product (it’s 2018- get it right, people!). A good tech experience is fast, intuitive to the fullest and satisfying (like we discussed in class about the confetti shower on your screen when you make a purchase- I loved that!).  When I first used Google Pay, I did not only find it useful, it also went above and beyond to provide a fun way of transacting money. Like using emoji’s and graphically attaching money to my screen. Moreover, I could transact using the google assistant, which was a fun exercise! Wish it’d understand my accent better, though. Almost sent five hundred dollars to Shane, the UPS guy for no reason.

Further, it also speaks to the fear inside me regarding data theft. I won’t say it completely addresses it, it does, however, make me feel that my fear is acknowledged by talking about it.

 

Operational Experience: This part is quite unique in the digital space for Google Pay. Operational aspect would generally be the backend supply chain process for an e-commerce experience. Here, however, the operational aspect is me actually using the product in a shop with a retailer. To begin with, the partnership network is not great enough to facilitate using Google Pay universally. This limits usage and causes disappointment. Where it is accepted, when I am ready to pay, I open the app which opens the camera to scan a QR code. I scan the right code and the sum is deducted from my linked payment option. Simple, right?

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Wrong. Firstly, I need a good internet connection. Wifi works best. If the connectivity is spotty, the app takes several seconds too many to pair with the QR code. This definitely invokes frustration because I could have pulled out my wallet and be done with it, by now. If you have multiple payment options within it, care needs to be taken to pick the right method for every transaction. This adds another layer of frustration. Thus, I conclude that when it works, it works great. When it doesn’t, it really sucks.

By analyzing the break down of customer experience with Google Pay, we must keep in mind the 4 stages of the effective operationalization of customer experience I had discussed earlier in the blog. Google Pay excels in all aspects but one- the customer support system. It is surprisingly hard to find human-assistance for meaningful issues and that is a hurdle to its user retention. However, overall the product is doing pretty despite living in the shadow of its older, cooler cousin- Apple Pay.

Hope you enjoyed my perspective on operationalizing the customer experience.

Signing out!