Worlds Within Worlds
Abstract
The Internet has become accessible to over 3 billion people worldwide. It has become an aphorism to say that the world is a connected village. However, even in a small group, there is significant variation within a roomful of people, let alone billions spread over the globe with different habits, connection speeds, social networks, and necessities. Designing for these markets holds many different challenges and demands a deep knowledge of the constraints at hand as well as their habits, demographics, and local context.
Keywords
World; credit card; China; digital portrait; social media; demographics; connectiveness
4.1 A Global User Journey
You can’t walk alone. Many have given the illusion but none have really walked alone. Man is not made that way. Each man is bedded in his people, their history, their culture, and their values.
William Shakespeare
In 2015, the Internet has become accessible to over 3 billion people worldwide. There are over one billion websites registered worldwide (with 75% of them parked domains), and over 90 trillion e-mails have been sent since the dawn of the digital age. All of this is the result of human activity and connection. It has become an aphorism to say that the world is a connected village. The implication is that physical distance is transcended by way of our digital connection, and that we are closer than ever before. However, there is enough variation within a roomful of people, let alone billions spread over the globe with different habits, connection speeds, social networks, and necessities. Designing for these markets involves many different challenges and demands a deep knowledge of the constraints at hand.
Not all countries use technology in quite the same way. Cultural specification underlines many of the prevalent behaviors and habits, especially when it comes to how people use and share their devices. Knowing the audience that one designs for is paramount to designing effectively, like an old adage from ancient scripts: know your users and the rest will follow.
4.2 Digital Portrait: Europe
As a territory, Europe is vast, extending from Lisbon to Moscow, but it is actually the second smallest continent, with barely over 10 million square kilometers and a population of around 740 million, according to a 2012 UN report. Information and communication technologies have become an integral part of everyday life in the continent, from e-commerce to education. This has generated ongoing conversations and legislative initiatives concerning privacy protection and antimonopoly laws.
According to a 2014 Eurostat report, over 81% of all households have access to Internet, marking an upward trend that has followed on from previous years. Luxembourg and the Netherlands recorded the highest rate of households with Internet access, at 96%, followed closely by Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, where approximately 90% of households have Internet access and individuals make an average of 50 online purchases each year (Fig. 4.2.1).
In Spain and Portugal, like in other Latin countries, messaging and communication apps are commonly used among friends and family. Whatsapp is one of the most popular services in these countries, due to the fact that local phone companies usually do not provide unlimited calls and charge for SMS. The picture is slowly changing, but it is still cheaper and more accessible to use a VOIP or chat-based app like Whatsapp. This has led many companies to adopt the app for customer contact and support, and many businesses, large and small, actively promote their services on Whatsapp as a customer support tool. Several support desk tools integrate with the app in order to provide a "switchboard" to track individual customer cases.
There is a relatively low concern in these countries with the impact of media and technology on children and learning, unlike France, for example, where public discussions over children’s technological overexposure are relatively common.
In the United Kingdom and France, devices tend to be shared among the family, but accounts and credentials remain relatively individual and private, whereas in Latin countries, access accounts are often shared by the whole family. France has a more diverse approach to technology, with some families relying on very high-tech solutions for their everyday life while others rely on traditional means like analogue note-taking when talking on the phone. However, parents also tend to moderate their children’s usage of mobile devices, especially before the age of 16 years, due to concerns with health.
4.2.1 Housing
As several countries in Europe rely on a renter’s market, housing is often seen as an impermanent space and there is a trend toward minimalism and pre-made decoration. Given the economic and political tensions in countries like France and the United Kingdom, there is a high prize on mobility and portability.
4.2.2 Family
The concept of family is not the same even in a relatively homogeneous continent like Europe. While Western Europe tends to equate the nuclear family a fairly traditional definition, the model of the average family is quite different in Eastern and Southern Europe.
In countries like Poland, the concept of family tends to be larger and to include not only immediate extended family like grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins but also ancestors. There is a continuity to the individual that extends into the past and contextualizes the present.
Families are also more communicative and interactive, and this infers a very specialized use of technology. Multimodal interaction is not as common in countries with a weaker economy (Ghosh & Joshi, 2013). Most European countries tend to multitask while using mobile devices at home. Although “mobile-first” is a much repeated mantra since it was introduced by Eric Schmidt, then Chairman of Google, users are far more likely to use a range of devices for different tasks and choice of content. According to a 2015 comScore study in the US, 77% of users aged 18–34 used a combination of mobile and desktop, with only 3% stating that they only used desktop platforms. This number increased systematically for older audiences aged 55+, where nearly 26% stated that they depended on their desktop machine only for Internet access. The 2016 comScore MMX Multi-Platform study also found that users differentiate per content and scenario: weather was far more likely to be checked on the mobile phone, whereas newspapers could be checked on both desktop and mobile. On the other hand, banking and retail were predominantly done on desktop machines, a trend, however, that is changing in favor of the mobile phones every year.
Throughout Europe, the importance of quality of life and family is relatively high, with children’s school vacations often arranged in order to coincide with holidays.
Poorer economies also tend to rely on “hand-me-down” devices for relatives, particularly youngsters or senior citizens. Depending on the family preference, mobile phones can be passed over between members—e.g., the teenager gives his or her iPhone to the grandmother once the phone is replaced. The turnover rate for devices is much lower and devices on average take longer to replace. Due to this emphasis on cost, refurbished phones are very common and free services like Whatsapp or Google Hangouts are popular. Skype and other similar VOIP platforms are also extremely popular, particularly for long distance or overseas calls, whether personal or business. However, the inconvenience of setting up a video call and the need to stay in-camera and in a stable position is a factor that can reduce the frequency of the calls. Using tablets for videocalls is a common way to overcome this situation.
There is also a marked difference in the communication between partners and former family members. Communication with ex-partners is relatively rare in most societies, except when children are involved. The communication patterns tend to be more frequent and reliable with couples and children than with more distanced family members.
Extended families in Poland also sometimes do the shopping for their older relatives and are very influenced by personal recommendations.
Landline calls are most often used with older members of the family, as most older households have landlines. Although the panorama is slowly changing, elders for the most part do not yet communicate by text or message with their children or grandchildren. Telecommunication providers differ in tariffs and contract value between countries, and apps like Whatsapp have become more popular as a result, as they sidestep the potential cost of SMS and other phone costs pushed by the network.
The variety of devices and apps used imply that the initiator of the contact has to know what device the receiver has (Android or iPhone) and what the conditions of the receiver are. For instance, a daughter may have pictures of her holiday to show their grandmother but, knowing she is not on Whatsapp, opts to send them to the aunt who lives with her granny instead.
Videocalls are particularly important for communication between the younger and the older generations of a family, in order to determine how “healthy” or “safe” their relatives are, particularly when traveling or away.
Family relationships are sometimes strained by professional obligations, as there is no overwhelming feeling of responsibility or economic obligation that prompts families to live together with the elder members in the same household. Consequently, there is sometimes a perceived emotion of guilt associated with not being able to obtain more feedback on well-being or physical status of elder family members on the ensuing communication.
Sharing accounts in digital services like Amazon, eBay, or Spotify is also common between couples and families sharing the same household.
Russia has fairly dissimilar habits concerning messaging from the rest of Europe, as the most popular app for the category is Viber, initially launched as a direct competitor for Skype.
4.2.3 Social Media
The use of Facebook is heavily dependent on demographics as well. In France, families tend to use features like groups and events in a much more inclusive manner, whereas in other countries, communication over Facebook tends to be more direct.
4.2.4 Most Often Used Communication Channels
SMS (France, Eastern Europe, Germany); Whatsapp (Portugal, Spain, Italy); E-mail and Skype (for long-distance communication with absent and younger family members).
Reliance on voice commands and speech recognition is moderate and on the rise, but self-awareness inhibits many speakers from using it in public. It is very useful in the household, especially for family members engaged in other tasks.
4.3 Digital Portrait: North America
Recently, a friend of mine was stuck in Atlanta on a 3-hour layover. His flight was delayed, and aching to check his work e-mail, he was desperate for a quick shot of Wi-Fi. He decided to ask for assistance. “That cafe has it,” waved a bored security guard dismissively. Disheveled and unkempt, he was chasing that fabled two-bar signal that can take one from incommunicado to engaged. He waved his weathered Macbook in the air as if awaiting a transmission from the heavens: alas, the electronic deity informed him that a monthly subscription was due if ever he was to see his inbox refreshed again.
However, Canada and the United States are two of the best connected countries in the world, ranking consistently in the Top 10 of every Digital Access Index and Internet statistic. Silicon Valley has consistently set many of the digital trends that have taken other markets by storm, from Apple and Nvidia to Facebook and Netflix. The individuality and self-reliance that are an inherent part of the national character have helped the entrepreneurship spirit to grow beyond its borders, allowing the American presence to grow the world over.
User habits in North America tend to be wildly variable, as they can differ substantially between large areas such as New York and San Francisco, to more remote locations in the Midwest and even northern Alaska. Although connectivity is very good throughout the country, there is a clear difference in the usage of standard services like social media. According to a Statista report, North America is the global region with the highest penetration of social media at 59%. Facebook dominates the proceedings, as 44% of all social media access is stamped on the company’s servers. As of 2016, it is estimated that 185 million people use social media. Suburban areas and high-income users (over 75,000 dollars per year) lead the overall access statistics, with almost 30% of inhabitants accessing their accounts several times per day.
Although traditionally, SMS was cheap and accessible across operators, this communication channel has since been replaced with iMessage and Facebook Messenger. iMessage has latched onto the success of the iPhone and allowed users to use instant messaging between Apple devices without using the carriers network. Facebook Messenger has grown over the past few years and is set to continue domination on the Android market as well (Fig. 4.3.1).
4.4 Digital Portrait: South America
Internet access in South America is unbalanced, reflecting the sometimes extreme contrasts that afflict developing markets. Its biggest economies are Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. Of the three, Brazil has the largest Internet penetration and digital access index. More than a combination of overblown costumed celebrations and an amalgamation of football excellence, Brazil has grown to be one of the promising new world powers in terms of prime materials and social mass. Its investments on carbon emissions control and environmental sustainability policies have attracted attention all over the world. Historically, the country has been plagued with mediatic corruption scandals, entrenched criminal activity, and internal recessions. Yet, according to the IMF, it is also the eighth largest world economy and holds the high mark in South America for new technology adoption. The country has successfully transitioned into state-of-the-art telecommunication networks and continues to improve its infrastructures on a yearly basis.
And most of it is used by the poorest segments of the population in the country. The lower classes have the upper hand in their access and usage of computers, and poorer people use communication technology more extensively: phones, laptops. A 2010 report by the Datapopular Institute reported that 87% of people with a monthly income under $2040 BRL (approximately $580 USD) had a computer at home, with a total of 28 million Brazilian families having access to at least one such device in the household. Nine out of 10 favela dwellers owned at least one mobile phone by 2013, and the Internet penetration on the country was 64% by 2015, totaling over 130 million Internet users in a population of roughly 200 million.
The average low salary and inflation prompted Brazil to have a uniquely shifting social landscape, where 65% of slum inhabitants were already considered to be a part of the new middle class. Over the years, socioeconomic indexes have also demonstrated that rather than move away from the slum areas, more families are becoming comfortable with the low rent and the closeness of the neighborhood of the “favela.”
The same can be said of Mexico, where, according to a AMIPCI (Mexican Internet Association) 2015 study, there are over 53.9 million Internet users, with a 51% penetration in inhabitants aged 6 or older. Also in Mexico, social groups of a C or D classification (lower middle or low class) constitute up to 77% of the Internet user community. The social gap between the different social groups in South America is closing in—and technology is largely to blame.
Digital experience in Brazil, like elsewhere in South America, is heavily social—and predominantly young. In Mexico, at least a quarter of all Internet users are teenagers between 13 and 18 years old, with 75% of all Internet usage coming from millennials aged 6 to 34 years. This implies that younger segments of the population are the main targets of actual web design, mainly in a home setting.
According to the same AMIPCI report, most of the Internet usage is social in nature: over 83% of users in Mexico use it for social networking of some sort. The most popular social media websites in Brazil and Mexico are Facebook, followed by Twitter and Whatsapp.
Facebook Users and Penetration in Latin America, by Country, 2014–19
| Facebook user (millions) | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
| Brazil | 72 | 79 | 87 | 92.5 | 94.8 | 97 |
| Mexico | 40 | 45 | 52 | 57 | 61 | 65 |
| Argentina | 18 | 20 | 21 | 21.7 | 22.4 | 23 |
| Other | 63.9 | 73.2 | 81.5 | 87.5 | 92.9 | 97.4 |
| Facebook user penetration (% of social network users) | ||||||
| Argentina | 94.8 | 94.8 | 96.3 | 96.3 | 96.4 | 96.5 |
| Mexico | 94.1 | 94.5 | 94.7 | 94.8 | 94.9 | 95 |
| Brazil | 92.2 | 91.4 | 93.3 | 94.5 | 94.2 | 94.1 |
| Other | 89.6 | 88.4 | 90.9 | 91.1 | 91.2 | 91.1 |
| Facebook user penetration (% of Internet users) | ||||||
| Mexico | 67.3 | 70 | 73.3 | 75.3 | 75.8 | 76.2 |
| Brazil | 66.9 | 69.5 | 72.6 | 75 | 75.3 | 75.5 |
| Argentina | 67 | 68 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 72.6 |
| Other | 57.6 | 61 | 64.3 | 66 | 67.5 | 68.6 |
| Facebook user penetration (% of population) | ||||||
| Argentina | 42.2 | 45.4 | 47.6 | 49 | 50.3 | 51.2 |
| Brazil | 35.5 | 38.7 | 42.2 | 44.6 | 45.4 | 46.1 |
| Mexico | 33.4 | 37.6 | 42.4 | 46.1 | 48.9 | 51.4 |
| Other | 26.5 | 30 | 33 | 35.1 | 36.8 | 38.2 |
Source: eMarketer, July 2015. Used with permission from eMarketer.com.
4.5 Digital Portrait: Asia
The Chinese are among the most avid travelers in the world. You will be hard-pressed to find an attractive destination anywhere that is not regularly visited by Chinese families, aiming to record the whole experience for posterity (and online outlets) with thousands of hazy Polaroid-emulating shots.
Given the emphasis on a hard-working ethic, Chinese consumers tend to take precious little time away from work and often holidays go incomplete when employees return to work earlier to demonstrate their commitment to the company.
For these reasons, choices in traveling and products are very well thought-out, with an in-depth premeditation. When booking hotels and holidays, Chinese people tend to carefully research international hotels, and consult both search engines as well as travel guide sites. Some of the most popular choices include CTRIP, Booking.com, and Baidu searches. These searches are often conducted on social media and forums as well: word-of-mouth and personal recommendation play a major role in making a purchase choice.
India has developed its own smartphone infrastructure dramatically in the past 10 years, and the most popular messaging app in the country is Nimbuzz with 150 million users in the country. The app features various chat rooms and Nimbuckz, a specialized currency used to buy gifts and others.
Online audiences are getting older, with over 40% of Internet users aged 25 years or older as of 2013. Also, there is a trend to increase the number of female users online, which will have an impact on the economy, as women are incharge of over 44% of budget choices at home in India.
Social units in India tend to be small, and the population density in the country implies the need for smaller homes. Living rooms tend to be small, but are usually equipped with television and DVD or Bluray players.
Families tend to share devices, and it is very usual that younger members of the family are given hand-me-down smartphones and tablets. The content in Indian websites also tended to use the English language, as the Internet in India largely started in the urban areas, typically accessed by a more affluent segment of the population. A 2016 study by W3Techs on usage of content languages for websites clearly puts English atop the Web pyramid, populating over 52% of all websites. Hindi has less than 1% of the total worldwide web content, Now that mobile phones and accessible technology are more popular, however, social diversification can lead to a growth of Hindi and Tamil on online content and the proliferation of sites like Raftaar.in (Fig. 4.5.1).
Most of the popular equipment in the country tends to be low-end or with limited Internet functionality. Internet cafés were traditionally the center of the online activity in less urban areas, and are still very popular. Given the reasonably low speed of communication, the use of pen drives is also a popular resource within small groups of users. Electricity plugs might also be a concern.
Depending on the social makeup of the group, it is possible that any research in Asian markets involves a cross-channel approach, involving both desktop, tablets, and mobile phones. Desktop is no longer a dominant approach in the continent, in light of the growth of mobile in Asia. However, connection issues and data bandwidth (along with pricey data packages) sometimes prompt users to spend longer on their devices at home. This, coupled with occasional difficulties in accessing international websites due to national firewall restrictions, can render the experience frustrating at points.
The reliance on personal validation also implies that larger purchases, like a holiday, may be subjected to the opinions of others. This is also a social constraint on many other Asian countries, where the emphasis lies on social acceptance and agreement.
Credit cards are not universally used throughout the world as a preferred means of payment, and the Asia-Pacific has in the past shown a slow rate of adoption for credit cards and other credit solutions. However, one notable distinction is China, which according to a 2015 McKinsey report on Asia-Pacific payments, has seen their credit card revenue (27%) surpass the transaction fee revenue in absolute numbers (21%).
Credit card usage is increasing in China, where traditionally prepaid cards enjoyed great success. This is partly due to an increase in B2C sales, but also the development of certain payment alternatives, including Alipay.
Alipay has risen on the back of the Alibaba Group, which has become over the past 15 years one of China’s most striking success stories. It has since been made in an independent enterprise which is involved in over half of all the online transactions in China. This is especially relevant as the e-commerce market in China has quickly doubled from 10 to 20 trillion yuan since 2013, and much of it is paid with Alipay methods.
Due to the novelty of the method, Chinese users tend to use their credit card as banks offer various loyalty rewards and benefits based on their expenditure, especially for larger sums. Given that holidays and travels might incur large sums, credit cards offer a flexible and reliable means of payment that absorb the financial shock for the payment of a large amount of money. WeChat and Union Pay are also popular means of payment.
4.5.1 Lessons From the Field
A record-holding company with the largest IPO in history, Alibaba is at the center of an ecosystem that incorporates financing and marketing affiliates:
The Chinese market is a two-way door, with traffic flowing in both directions. Just as Western companies attempt to find a foothold onto the Chinese market, so are Chinese companies seeking out their markets in the West in order to expand their market. Over 40% of Alibaba’s customer base is split between North America and Europe versus 30% in Asia.
4.6 Digital Portrait: Australia
The tech scene has been developing in the Australian and New Zealand ecosystems for quite some time, and has matured rapidly. Despite the remote geography of the continent, Sydney and Melbourne have developed buzzing development hubs as the society at large caught up rapidly with the latest innovations pushed by international big players.
Most of the tech work developed in the country is directed at international clients, and the location can be beneficial in that regard. Sydney and Melbourne partially overlap with the US West Coast and most Asian capital cities time zones. The prevalent multicultural workforce in the country and its buzzing business atmosphere make it an exciting destination for tech companies. However, the cost of living and housing is still unfathomably high, even by comparison with expensive cities like New York and London.
Australia and New Zealand are typically closer to the American reality than the Asian technological figures. Whereas South Korea and Japan boast average connections of over 15 Mbps, the average in Australia is around 8 Mbps.
Still, in terms of connectivity, the country has one of the best rates in developed nations, and it shows in the digital habits in the country. Television still plays a major role in the country’s entertainment options, but Australian consumers are savvy and prefer streamed options over bloated subscriptions and packages. Netflix and YouTube are two of the most popular options in the country.
According to the 2015 Deloitte Media Consumer Survey, reading and watching television are still leading activities in the lives of an educated population with a high standard of living. Nevertheless, 55% of the population uses accesses the Internet over 5 times a day, and 87% of Australians access it on a daily basis. Social media has developed a strong presence in the country, with Facebook clearly emerging as the winner with 95% of all social media accesses. Instagram follows at 31% and LinkedIn at 24%.
Australia also has a particularly restrictive policy on censorship and privacy. This can make videoing interactions in commercial areas a dicey affair.
Like elsewhere in Western Europe, phone users tend to buy a plan or contract for mobile phones rather than buy the device in full. It is possible to break the contract with a penalty fee, but this is highly variable between providers.
4.7 Digital Portrait: Africa
Africa is the most ethnically diverse continent in the world, and its multitude of languages, customs, and habits pose a challenge to designers. The difference in digital literacy and experience in ICT is changing in several places in the continent, which as a whole continues to move further and further away from the grim imagery of famine and war that plagued its perception in the West for decades.
Nigeria in particular has experienced a dramatic growth in connectiveness since the early 1990s. According to the DHL Global Connectedness Index 2014 report, it is actually one of the 50 best connected countries in the world at number 38. (As a comparison, the United States are ranked 23rd.) This is partially due to the important role played by the Nigerian economy in international trade with other partners worldwide, particularly in terms of oil derivatives. Even though it has done little to bridge the economic disparity of the local population, the country continues to thrive.
4.7.1 Infrastructure
The mobile communication network is generally improving, with fixed lines still lagging behind in rural areas. Urban centers are predictably much better connected. South Africa is one of the exceptions, with the fixed-line and mobile phone networks being of general good quality throughout the country. Mobile phone subscription is on the rise, and competition is fierce in various countries.
4.7.2 Communication Style
In Nigeria, the high-context communication style often leads to a reliance on verbal cues and implicit messages. The conversation tends to be more direct when dealing with individuals perceived as social lower status.
4.7.3 Family
Most African cultures tend to be group-oriented. Multigenerational family households are common, and the emotional support provided by grandparents and cousins is crucial to everyday living. The importance of personal relationships cannot be overstated, since a lot of businesses rely on stable and reliable partnerships that often extend beyond the professional sphere. On the other hand, hierarchies are still respected and upheld in most European-style businesses, and short-term goals are often the priority in light of political and military tensions.
Privacy is less of a concern than in more individualistic societies, but countries like Kenya tend to prefer to work individually. Tensions between different ethnic groups are still rampant, due to the struggle for access to limited resources. Social media is blooming across the continent.
4.8 Infrastructure and Trust
Here in your mind you have complete privacy. Here there’s no difference between what is and what could be.
Chuck Palahniuk
Hardware cost is a problem in emerging markets. Often, it is more cost effective to use older systems and smart phones. Some projects aimed at introducing affordable smartphones in these economies have relied on outdated technology or refurbished devices. One of these projects was the Freedom 251 phone, claiming to be the world’s cheapest smartphone with a retail price of about $4, although the production cost exceeded $40. In 2014 Google also entered the Indian market with its own low-cost “Android One” project, retailing at 6399 Indian Rupees.
How sustainable is this business model? Companies defend smart phones by targeting burgeoning growth markets, particularly the poorer social segments which cannot afford a glitzy (even if outdated) iPhone. This represents a significant opportunity to build a presence and even a controlling monopoly with markets that are just starting to awaken to the possibilities of the digital lifestyle.
It also helps that these markets are huge. According to a 2015 GfK forecast, the largest growing tech markets are also significantly populated (in USD $billion):
Over the years, major communication companies made several attempts at breaking the bonds of poor infrastructure in African countries. Vodafone was one of the first companies to do so, by introducing the WebBox in 2011: a keyboard that included a GSM/EDGE receiver and could be connected up directly to a television. The company attempted to pitch the WebBox at developing countries, starting with selected countries in Africa, including Kenya and South Africa, as well as India and Turkey. The expansion of the mobile infrastructure slowly overtook the investment in the area, but the WebBox, like other products in its range, led to a slew of products aimed at the poorly connected areas of the globe with a focus on robustness and low building cost.
The communication breakdown concerns about security and privacy are rampant, with the media and public opinion both, but what does this mean? Is there a general discomfort toward monopoly? Data collection? Is it a matter of trust toward corporations like Google or Facebook? Or is it something deeper and more malleable?
This is one of the reasons why monopolies can actually assist the user journey, and China leads the way in this seamless experience: from the incipience of wanting to the target of satisfaction. The integration between purchasing and payment is one of the reasons behind the success of Amazon, and the major Chinese services are following a similar recipe.
Western users are accustomed to a mosaic of services which bounce them from the midst of a purchase to the payment website, e.g., between eBay and PayPal. Monopolies are growing in the East, and consumer demand is actively growing with them.
4.9 Customer Support and Service
Here beyond men’s judgments all covenants were brittle.
Cormac McCarthy
In some quadrants of the industry, marketing is seen as a world apart from user experience. Consider, however, that marketing plays a key role in establishing leads, reaching out to prospective customers, and setting up their expectations and idea of the brand. These are essential components of the prejudgments that the potential customer will bring when purchasing a product or using a service. Retaining and satisfying the customer is then a prime component of user or customer experience.
Expectations play a major role in the customer reactions to the support services in an international setting. For example, an English customer calls a brand’s customer support contact number. The ensuing conversation with an Indian contact does not go well: the call quality is poor, the customer has difficulty understanding the support contact’s accent, and the support service cannot reliably understand the nature of the problem. The experience is unsatisfactory for all involved, and as a result, negative feelings toward the brand are inevitable (Fig. 4.9.1).
This is in line with our own psychology as a social species. The sum of our experience and background constitutes its subjective knowledge, and this plays a major role in our assumptions. We tend to see things from one specific point of view, but this perspective has been influenced and affected by the country we were raised in, the companies we work in, and the expectations we have toward other services. Anecdotally, British and American tourists frequently vent their frustrations about local customer service when going abroad in areas like Southern Europe or Northern Africa. The interaction is fairly similar to what they would experience back home: buying a meal or a souvenir, or going out on the town. However, the expectation toward a certain type of interaction and body language on the staff’s part has been greatly set up by their own experiences in their original environment.
The Smiling Report, an international customer service quality assessment report specialized in shopping services, consistently places Asia at the bottom of their listings for smiling, greeting, and add-on sales. These are relatively universal indicators of good customer service in the West, and a common expectation for most indecisive customers sitting at the table of a modest restaurant or an upscale coffeehouse. However, in Asian countries, these interactions were for the most part curt and courteous at best. The 2015 report has placed territories like Hong Kong and Japan at the bottom of an international satisfaction survey with customer experience, while countries like the UK, Ireland, and Greece literally greet their visitors with a broad grin.
The difference between these countries is deeper than just cultural. Customer service in Asia was traditionally regarded as the modern equivalent of visiting a begrudging grandmother who has no qualms with identifying perceived flaws with your weight, clothes, and questionable life choices. This is not the universal reality, however, with the 2015 Avaya Asia-Pacific Customer Experience Survey highlighting that Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines praise their customer service, while Singapore are repeatedly disillusioned with the quality of their services. Sixty-five percent of them, in fact, rated contact with a customer service center as “always problematic.” The trend toward higher expectations and customer-centric services is growing yearly in Asia. It signals a shift in the economy of Asian countries, which are increasing their service industry with tourism at the forefront, and product support as a firm reminder of the importance of reliable customer services.
The change in expectations also results directly of social upheaval in countries like China and Vietnam. The rise of a middle class with an increasingly solid amount of disposable income and the success of luxury brands and international retailers in these territories show the lingering social appeal that “lifestyle” products have, particularly in burgeoning societies where status and external signs of wealth are correlated.
Apart from the internal social and economic changes in these Asian countries, the rise of the service industry, with tourism at the forefront, as well as the implementation of some of the best airports in the world in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and China, brought about an increasing number of visiting Westerners, which also played a role in the growth of service quality expectations and demands.
4.10 Case Study: What’s in a Name?
Imagine the typical mid-morning atmosphere of an office in Beijing. Twenty-two stories down, the traffic buzzes and whizzes by with chaotic mechanistic precision. In the office, a cacophony of its own can be heard. Angel, the receptionist, calls Ruby, a designer, to inform her that the legal consultant, Magnum Yuen, has arrived and is waiting for their 11 o'clock meeting. Gandalf and Eleven (first name Seven) are also invited to the meeting.
Although not commonly appropriate by Western standards, English names are often appropriated in Asian territories, particularly those with a colonialist past. They usually have an association with a concept or character that is deemed important or bringing great fortune, like “Pussy,” “Cesar,” or “Hitler.” Celebrities are also extremely popular, but the correct spelling of their names is sometimes faltering.
This results from an altogether different naming strategy that takes place in the young and concerned parents' minds. Chinese names are decomposable and subjective in Mandarin, with the different characters enclosing hidden aspirational meanings of good luck and fortune. The novelty effect of appellations is also quite appealing, as proven by the existence of colorful names such as Devil Law, Moniac, Kinetic, and Lazy.
The practice is partly influenced by the British colonial past in the area, as the adoption of English names is also associated with social mobility and prestige in an area where international trade is ubiquitous and English is spoken on a daily basis. The difficulty in building familiarity posed by the Chinese language also helps to explain the reason behind English names and their popularity (Fig. 4.10.1).
Lindsay Jernigan came up with the idea for Best English Name after experiencing the bewildering variety and widespread popularity of English-sounding names in China. Until 2005, there were no Chinese sites made by English speakers, and upper middle-class young parents in the 20-to-25-year-old range looking to start or extend their young family were left without solid references regarding how to name their children with appropriate foreign-sounding names.
In seeing this, Lindsay devised a service meant to advise and help young parents seeking an appropriate name for their children. Being an ex-pat from the age of 12–19 in the United Kingdom, she returned to Shanghai to find an open environment. The presence of foreigners in China is now seen as normal, but was less commonly accepted in the past.
The resulting website was the product of a 1 year collaboration with IT Consultis. Although only 15% of the customer base used an initial iteration of the website to name newborns, later iterations started becoming broader in both appeal and usage.
“The website had to be colorful and interesting to appeal to a native Chinese audience,” states Lindsay. “Our intention was still to keep a Western element to it, in order to reinforce our focus.” Winks and ads are everywhere in normal Chinese websites. Although the website was directed at women initially, men have started to use it more often, namely because of the highly aspirational element of naming a child with a resonating English name that can beckon good luck and an auspicious future, according to Chinese lore.
The characters were designed purposefully with hybrid feature in order to depict them less as caricatures and more as international representations. That suits the international pitch of the site, which focuses on different countries.