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Have you ever found that your project managers and business-minded team members struggle to get on the same page with your IT department and developers? Have you ever felt that these teams were using the same words but the definitions of those words didn’t line up?
With the complex task of building a modern, intuitive, easy to use customer portal, a wealth of challenges already exist. Adding on the challenge of miscommunication leaves room for inefficiencies such as exceeding budget, wasting time, and building frustration. That’s where Sorriso’s Persona Scripting Language comes in.
In order to develop software or build a customer billing portal, your project managers and IT department must already work together to develop use cases and outline a vision for the future. Use case language is the inspiration for Sorriso’s new Persona Scripting Language. This means you can ensure your teams stay on the same page as you create, adapt, and grow your customer billing portal.
Sorriso’s Persona Scripting Language makes Sorriso Self Care applications flexible and easy to change. Inspired by the UML descriptions made popular by Alistair Cockburn, the Persona Scripting Language is fast and easy to use. Translate your use case into the Persona Scripting Language with ease because they’ve been designed to align. Whether you’re a business minded or technically savvy professional, you can write in the Persona Scripting Language to modify and design your customer billing portal.
The Sorriso Self Care platform implements a Model/View/Controller (MVC) architecture that utilizes the Persona Scripting Language in two ways:
Design an individual page module, a full page, or a multi-web page interaction and flow.
UX use cases describe:
Take control of your information architecture. With the Persona Scripting Language you can create back end business objects that access customer and account information. This means you can transform raw system data into secure, application specific transactions and responses for your customers to self serve.
Generate, edit, and validate code that your project managers can read. Empower the members of your team to push forward with progress and effectively communicate around your data-backed customer experience projects.
The Persona Scripting Language is embedded in Eclipse as a plug-in, you can create and test customer portal modules right inside Eclipse.
Because when we think of “self service”, we think of this:
An Automat.
Automats were the first vending machines. Born in the 1900s, automats originally served simple hot meals to customers. They eliminated the need for a cashier and offered a non-intrusive browsing experience. The reason why we, here at Sorriso, wanted to steer away from the automat experience is because it connotes “no service”.
While we know today’s customers prefer to enjoy a non-intrusive browsing experience much like the automat provided, we also know that modern technology makes it possible for the casual browsing experience to also be an engaging and intuitive one. We want our clients’ customers to know how much their companies care about them.
Customers today know a company cares about them when they feel they’ve been provided a personalized and thoughtful experience. And that’s what we help companies do: provide their customers with a personalized and thoughtful digital experience.
to explore the world of self service software
“Digital Transformation” has become a key initiative for today’s companies. Many have even written that companies must digitally transform or die. But what does this actually mean? And what will a digital transformation actually look like?
Read on for clarification, points to consider, and some helpful reference articles if you’ve been wondering about digital transformations.
Forbes has actually written quite a few articles on the digital transformation. Our favorite article reflects on Altimeter’s State of Digital Transformation Report, which clearly defines a Digital Transformation as:
We favor this definition of a digital transformation because it prioritizes the customer experience while staying broad enough to consider all business units involved in and affected by a changing customer experience.
Companies must digitally transform because their customers are. While a shift to engage customers when, where, and how they would like to be met with is necessary to survive, digital transformations will look different across industries and companies. Why? Because data allows us to further personalize and target individual customers.
Digital transformations affect everyone. It can mean different things to different departments.
It’s easy to get lost in your own world. Remember that although everyone may be working on executing different parts of your transformation, the end mission is the same. Work together, collaborate, be flexible, and be willing to experiment. Keep lines of communication open, because you never know when another perspective can help boost progress.
Because it can be easy for everyone to get lost in their day to day tasks and individual department missions, consider hiring someone whose sole responsibility is to remember the big picture. This person will ensure everyone’s staying on track to play their part in achieving your digital transformation goal.
Many companies are now hiring a Chief Customer Officer to do just that.
Wondering if you need a CCO? We liked Jeanne Bliss’s 6 Critical Checkpoints for a CCO.
Why are you digitally transforming? For your customers.
Do you know your customer journeys? Your customer life cycles? Do you understand your current touch points for…
A digital transformation includes many projects and phases. While it’s important to see the big picture, have you identified your goals for change? Have you understood the purpose of each phase or project and which customers’ needs you’re trying to meet, exceed, or change?
Sometimes there will be overlap. Some projects might solve the needs or pain points of more than one customer group, some may not. Just remember to take a step back and ensure each part of your digital transformation is committing to your ultimate goal of helping your customers.
Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. Ron Miller wrote a great article on TechCrunch that goes over a few ways to start with smaller projects and initiatives to ensure you’re making progress with your digital transformation. Here’s a high level overview of process suggestions:
Try a 1-Path Approach: Fully commit to your first pocket of innovation – if that pocket succeeds, it can catalyze future transformation efforts
Try a 2-Path Approach:
Mode 1 – maintain traditional IT with legacy systems and long purchase and implementation cycles.
Mode 2 – Fly by the seat of your pants and create for immediate needs with no plans. Be willing to experiment.
Ensure both modes are separated at first to avoid a Mode 1.5
Develop a measured plan for integrated projects in the future that will incorporate Mode 2 with Mode 1
For more details on these suggested approaches, and real world examples of how they’ve been implemented at companies like EMC, GE, and Coca Cola, check out the Tech Crunch article here.
Is your company going through a digital transformation? Are you looking to modernize and streamline a customer billing portal?
Let’s chat digital customer experiences.
Acton, Massachusetts: Sorriso Technologies, provider of bill centered digital customer care solutions, announces Persona Video™, a software package that delivers personalized, interactive customer service videos. Persona Video identifies customers with billing and service exceptions, and provides them with a personalized video explaining the exception and offering advice. Persona Video engages customers in an immediate and preemptive response to potential issues, turning what could be a frustrating phone call into a rich media experience.
Founder and CEO, John A. Kowalonek commented, “We’re very excited about Persona Video. It’s a simple solution that’s better than having a customer service rep walk you through your account. It anticipates a customer’s question and speaks to their concerns before they even notice there’s an issue. And what’s best, Persona Video can be added to a biller’s existing portal with minimal effort.”
Sorriso premiered a live demonstration of Persona Video at Mobile World Congress just a few weeks ago. Eric Ryan, VP of Product Innovation, reflected on the demo’s success at the show, “Our Persona Video demonstration is what really drew people to our stand this year. Billers walk a fine line between automating customer service to reduce OPEX and delighting customers with an engaging experience. The attendees we spoke with saw how Persona Video meets both targets.”
Persona Video will be available as a cloud or on premise offering. It can be purchased as a stand-alone solution, as part of a Persona customer portal, or as an add-on to a company’s existing customer portal. It will be available as a general release in summer 2015.
About Sorriso Technologies: In 2014, Inc. Magazine ranked Sorriso Technologies as one of the fastest growing privately held software companies in the United States. Sorriso is the leading provider of software for digital bill presentation, bill payment, self-service, and bill-centered marketing. Sorriso’s Persona Solution Suite™ targets both small and large billers with cloud based and customer premise based delivery options.