Is your company providing effortless simplicity?

If your company could only focus on one primary challenge in 2017 and beyond, what would it be? I would like to make the argument that the most important challenge by far, would be creating effortless simplicity for me. What and why is that?

What is effortless simplicity?

Effortless simplicity is what all individuals expect from everything that anyone provides, and as individuals we compare with other similar experiences. Effortless simplicity is emotional and anything that makes it easier for ‘me’. ‘Me’ decides when effortless simplicity happens. ‘Me’ compares effortless simplicity to previous and comparable situations. And ‘me’ acts based on my expectations, habits and needs.

The six truths!

At Zooma we talk about six truths about people and our behaviour, six guiding principles around how we behave:

• We have a hard time getting our agendas together
• We are first and foremost visual and emotional rather than textual and rational
• We expect to quickly find relevant answers, knowledge and verification through Google, Baidu and Yandex
• We increasingly use online to prepare & make purchase decisions
• We primarily trust our peers if we believe that they are alike us
• We have a short and ever decreasing attention span

Anything we as a company can do to cater to those needs mentioned is normally a success. Why? Because it makes our lives easier, it removes obstacles and makes our interactions devoid from friction. Simply put, you offer effortless simplicity for ‘me’.

Adhere to these rules, and you will be perceived as offering effortless simplicity for me.

On the other hand, ignore them and your company might even be perceived as stupid or ignorant. You know, that company where you always have to initiate the conversation, where you are constantly wasting your time in endless ques waiting for an answer, where you have to explain your case multiple times to multiple people and yet the next day the company has no idea who you are or what the subject of your enquiry was. (PS: If you work for one of these companies, contemplate how you can assist in its transformation or start looking for another job.)

Why is it important?

In today's world, where for example phone is only the 5th most preferred way for people born after 1981 to communicate, the rapidly changing technology landscape continue to increase consumer expectations of what to expect from companies. Combining that fact and others like it with the 6 principles above, and you have a recipe for trouble for many companies. Especially since expectations of effortlessness and simplicity increase faster than they're able to innovate to provide it.

Therefore, I think it's time to put focus on this topic! If you can make it a key priority for 2017 and beyond to understand what you need to provide to offer effortless simplicity to your customers, you have taken a major step to remain relevant and successful in the digital age.