Exclusive interview with author Steven Van Belleghem and a review his book about companies merging technical and human skill
RATING: Four Stars
“Only the digital super heroes like Facebook and Google create relationships with clients that are pure digital,” says When Digital Becomes Human author Steven Van Belleghem. “During a visit to the HQ of Starbucks in Seattle, the idea came that most successful companies without a digital background combine the strengths of the human touch and digital. That was the seed for the book.”
A great book for anyone in business, When Digital Becomes Human answers the question, what is a great customer service in the digital age? The case studies he uses, such as Amazon, Toyota, ING, Nike and Starbucks, reinforce the idea that having a person on the other end can be the difference between keeping and losing a customer. People struggling to make work all the technology entering our lives will want a person to talk to, not a robotic voice that cannot understand frustration. Van Belleghem argues that the human touch will become more, not less important, in the future.
Van Belleghem combines many thoughts around a central theme in the book, which covers digital marketing, big data and predictive analytics, privacy concerns, and crowdsourcing. While quite relevant today, he doesn’t address what happens next when robots do eventually understand nuance and become better at handling customer service than most people.
For research, Van Belleghem did a combination of quantitative survey research and interviews with leading companies. Eighteen months before he started writing, he conducted two global surveys, one about the evolution of self-service and the other about the future of customer relationships. He traveled to more than 50 leading companies in different parts of the world.
Van Belleghem says what surprised him most in his research was the rate of change at companies. “When I was writing the book, I wrote a part about Internet of Things. I talked about the speed of this evolution in the next five years. To be honest, when I was writing it, I was a little worried that I was too positive about this trend. Six months later…everyone I talk to, every company I meet, is working on this trend.”
When Digital becomes Human is Van Belleghem’s third book. The book was published in Dutch last year. He’s also written The Conversation Manager and The Conversation Company, that have sold 60,000 copies. The Conversation Manager was awarded Most Innovative Marketing Book of 2010. The Conversation Manager was runner-up for Best Marketing Book and Best Management Book in 2012.
Van Belleghem organizes inspirational trips to Silicon Valley with European entrepreneurs. He is currently preparing for inspirational trips to both the U.S. and Asia. He’s presenting lectures about the new book in several countries. For 12 years he was a partner at the research company InSites Consulting.
Van Belleghem was born in Bruge and is still based in Belgium.
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When Digital Becomes Human: The Transformation of Customer Relationships by Steven Van Belleghem. Trade Paperback, 208 pages, Publisher: Kogan Page (April 28, 2015) Language: English, ISBN: 9780749473235 $27.95
