"Will Customer Service be Uberized?" Robert Tercek keynote for Genesys in Singapore May 2016

The future of customer service will require a complex set of new skills: mastery of data, mastery of software, the mastery of on-demand marketplaces, and the ability to anticipate customer needs and make intelligent recommendations to customers. In May 2016, I was invited to give the opening presentation at the CX Leadership Council in Singapore. This group is focused on the future of customer experience (CX) across all platforms. The question I was asked to address was, "Will Customer Service Be Uberized?" Because the audience at this event came from all over the world, and fewer than 1/3 of the attendees were familiar with Uber firsthand, I decided to begin by giving them a much deeper understanding of the sweeping transformation to CX that Uber and other "vaporized" on-demand services have created. This talk begins with a brief overview of the principles in my book Vaporized, followed by a four-part analysis of the many different innovations that Uber brings to the customer experience of transportation on demand. Uber is, in many ways, the best illustration of how an app-enabled on-demand marketplace can completely change the customer expectations for a familiar old service like taxicabs. But Uber is just one example among many. The fact is that most of our oldest, most established service businesses are overripe for disruption; today an army of feisty startup ventures are working hard to reinvent these old businesses. I hope this this presentation will give you inspiration to reconceive, reimagine and reinvent your old industry!