Some jingles stick in your head, and for me, the Safelite tune is one. When you read the words “Safelite repair, Safelite replace,” there’s a good chance you too can provide the background music all on your own.
Like other marketing melodies, the aim of Safelite’s is to help you remember who they are and what they do. As a car window replacement company, their branding ditty is a business tool well-conceived and thoughtfully created. As proof, when I recently had a rock kick up and break my car window, my first thought was, “Call Safelite.” That’s when I met Scarlett.
Safelite is the largest and most successful car window repair business in America. Scarlett is Safelite’s customer-facing AI tool. Scarlett is all about efficiently helping you. The tool can offer immediate support, without waiting in a call queue. Scarlett can schedule an appointment for you and file your insurance claim. The tool can also seemingly cover your every need when something goes wrong.
If that were the end of the story, you might conclude, especially as a leader of a business speeding to use AI, that it really works. But what if you’re wrong?
Seeking perfection by adding imperfection
By “What if you’re wrong?” I don’t mean wrong about AI‘s potential to streamline your processes. I’m asking instead how good your AI will be when things in your business go unexpectedly wrong. This isn’t the top-of-mind question most think to ask when rushing to offer AI solutions to keep up with the Safelites of the world. By and large, the nearly singular emphasis is on how AI can enable an organization’s systems to work in the ideal.
However, organizations are imperfect. They can’t anticipate every scenario, and they will make mistakes, which isn’t all bad either. Such imperfection is central and indeed necessary, especially when it comes to innovation. If you fail to leave room for error, including in your AI design, you raise the risk of missing out on what you’re after—satisfied and loyal customers who stick with you, even when you mess up.
An all-too-common case in point
Safelite is far from alone in this oversight. Still, my recent experience with them is a teachable moment. At the start, Scarlett appeared to me to have covered all my needs to get my repair work done. Information about my broken window was taken in detail, from the vehicle’s make, model and identification number, right down to the color of the window tinting. My appointment was easily scheduled in just minutes.
Larry Robertson
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