There's a sure-fire, one-question test to find out if your customer experiences are keeping up with customer expectations: Are you still using PDF forms for any customer service processes?
Clinging to PDF forms and processes is akin to using two cans and a string for communication instead of smartphones. They are a glaring anachronism that proves your CX strategy is woefully behind the times.
Manual PDFs can't deliver the fast and easy customer experiences people crave. However, CX leaders often lament that digitizing PDFs doesn't make the technology queue. The task is frequently seen as a nice-to-do rather than a must.
I'm convinced that digitizing PDFs is far more urgent than some business leaders think. Customers are accustomed to the immediacy and convenience of responsive digital solutions. They expect queries and transactions to be effortless, swift, pre-populated with known information, instantaneous, and available to use wherever and however they connect. On those dimensions, manual PDFs earn a 0/4.
PDFs are anything but frictionless. They were a leap forward in 1993 when they first appeared, but so were 5.25-inch floppy discs. Manual PDFs don't meet the instant gratification standard Google, Instagram, and Amazon have established with consumers. They often require downloading, printing, filling out by hand, scanning, and then uploading or emailing back.
And let's talk mobile. Ever opened an 8.5x11 PDF on a smartphone? Prepare yourself for a litany of pinching and spreading gestures as you try to fill in the blanks. No PC handy? No printer or scanner? Big problem.
The negative impact of PDFs on CX is undeniable. The best-case scenario is that your customers muddle through with a sigh and a grimace. Other actions are increasingly more likely. They might take multiple days or weeks to complete the steps, creating significant opportunity costs. They might call your contact center to get an agent to fill out forms, burning expensive minutes of agent time. And increasingly, they might abandon the process or even your company.
If you think I am being overly dramatic here, try this experiment. Go to your website on your phone and download a PDF for a common customer task. Then, assuming you can find the file, open it and try filling it out. As you do, consider the PwC research showing that 17 percent of consumers will abandon a company after just one bad customer experience and 59 percent will move on after a few such experiences.
PDFs also create a lot of thrash for your internal teams. Manual data entry, verification, and processing are expensive, time-consuming, and prone to errors. Slow processes and manual work add significant costs that must be considered as a company sets its development priorities.>
PDF Replacement Should Be a Top Priority
PDFs have no place in a modern CX strategy. Fortunately, digital technology is now available to quickly and cost-effectively transform these experiences. Chatbots, for instance, can provide instant responses to common inquiries, guide customers through self-service options, and escalate complex issues to human agents when needed. Some offer natural language processing to make the customer experience even easier. They can be effective for addressing frequently and infrequently asked questions. Replacing PDFs should be a top priority for any chat initiative your company might undertake.
Another option is digital micro apps—super-streamlined digital experiences that replace PDFs with minimalist workflows, pre-filled information, and completion times that are a small fraction of those for PDFs. These experiences are optimized for small screens and eliminate all unnecessary steps so customers reach success in just a moment or two.
These and other CX solutions have become far more affordable. They are no longer the exclusive province of large enterprises. Increasingly sophisticated AI chatbots and low-code micro app builders reduce the time and cost of digitizing PDFs. Some can also automate processes to streamline internal steps after customers provide their data. With pre-built use cases and options to customize, you can eliminate PDFs faster and more cost-effectively than you think.
CX leaders must learn more about their tech options to address the PDF problem sooner. They must also educate their companies on the costs of PDF inaction. In many cases, PDFs have been used for so long that the costs and lost revenue from manual processes are often overlooked. By analyzing PDF abandons, error rates, time and cost for transcription, and other process challenges, you can build an even stronger business case for making PDF replacement a top priority.
Remember: the pace of change in customer experience is only getting faster. Thirty years is long enough for us to rely on manual PDFs. Replacing them is a must-do.
Ori Faran is founder and CEO of Callvu.