Whether in the private or public sector, AR is providing new opportunities for businesses and organisations to engage with customers, present and promote products and services, and transform processes.
AR is an exciting emerging technology with promise to offer a novel interface to contextual information. However, AR is fairly new in business and marketing, and the user experience of AR services is still very challenging to predict or envision. The companies that get this right will most likely have a significant lead in engaging with their customers.
In a recent formative study, the customer experiences/expectations of AR in mobile technology were investigated. The prospect that customers are ready for AR is promising.
Do the users really think implementing mobile AR in marketing and advertisement industry is useful?
Blue: Strongly agree, Orange: Agree, Grey: Somewhat agree, Yellow: Disagree
Whilst 60% in this study knew the term ‘AR’, only 6.7% has used AR technology before. Customers have smart devices, but not the experience – organisations can find great potential in this gap.
Sources: Maechler N., Neher K., and Park R. (2016) From touchpoints to journeys: Seeing the world as customers do, McKinsey&Company, March 2016; NTT Data (2015) Customer Journey Mapping Is at the Heart of Digital Transformation, KaW, Nov 04; Irshad, S. and Awang, DRB. (2016) User Perception on Mobile Augmented Reality as a marketing tool, Computer and Information Sciences (ICCOINS), 2016 3rd International Conference on, IEEE, Aug 15
Action Point
Better understand the potential of AR. Go through your customers’ journey and identify where AR could improve the customer experience.