How do we address digital overload?
The communications company Adare SEC asked me to address its conference recently, looking at the future of regulated communications. The letters, emails and increasingly other forms of communication that the various service providers in both the public and private sectors are required to send you.
Applied Futurist Tom Cheesewright on stage at Salford’s Lowry Theatre
Helpfully, Adare SEC had done some research of its own in the run up to the event that I could draw on in my preparation. Credible research assembled by Vanson Bourne, a company I collaborated with a number of times in previous careers. I won’t reveal the full outcomes of the Communication Calibration report, out soon, but it highlighted some serious concerns around customer service. Including that 82% of respondents said that customer services is too focused on apps and technology rather than person to person.
I decided to look at this in the wider context of our communications landscape. And as part of that, I audited my own digital communications. Here’s what I found.
This is from a slide showing the digital communications channels I use each week:
A presentation slide showing a large number of icons and logos from digital media including social networks, streaming services, forums and email clients.
Yes, I have three email accounts, three different phone numbers, six regular social networks, five different messaging services, and a couple of forums and apps that also allow people to message me. It’s no wonder that in this context, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the volume of digital communications that I receive. And I’m sure you’re the same.
Now imagine trying to reach you as a bank, or local authority: how do they cut through the noise and the natural barriers that we throw up when we’re overwhelmed?
Communications consolidation?
It would be easy to believe that that things are only going to get worse. After all, the social media landscape keeps fragmenting. New forms of communication keep popping up. But in the long term, I’m not so sure. Because the history of communications media suggests things tend to go the other way.
Here’s one of the other slides I posted at the conference:
What this illustrates is how email used to be proprietary. If you had a Xerox account you couldn’t mail someone at Hewlett Packard and vice versa. CompuServe users could only message other CompuServe users. Until eventually, everyone moved to the same standard.
Now it looks like we might be in the early stages of the same process happening with social media. We’re in the early stages. There are competing standards. And they’re only supported by some social networks. But they are at least (loosely) interoperable. And some big players are getting on board. BlueSky is supporting the AT protocol. And Threads the more common ActivityPub.
One client to rule them all
Picture this: in a few years time you have a single social media client to interact with all of your social networks. After all, they all do the same four things:
Store an address book of friends/followers/following
Allow you to post messages one to one, or one to many
Allow you to share rich media
Allow you to register your response to things people have shared
Is it really ridiculous to think we couldn’t use a single client to operate across multiple networks? Just think how much simpler that would be. And actually, how much better it would be for the broader business landscape.
It’s not just regulated industries that struggle to communicate with customers. A simpler, unified communications landscape would reduce costs and create new entrepreneurial opportunities, just like email and the web did before it.