Customer Relations: how far will the metaverse go?
It may have been born of science fiction but the metaverse is real enough today. Although it’s starting to arouse interest among brands and offer new opportunities, it also raises a great many questions.
Arnaud Bouchaud, Armatis’ Director of Digital Solutions, enlightens us on the subject.
The metaverse: let’s suggest a definition…
From visionary 1990s author Neal Stephenson to Mark Zuckerberg, a great many people have given their definitions of the metaverse.
From my point of view, the metaverse is a virtual universe accessible by means of a virtual reality headset, providing total immersion in a world where it’s possible to socialise, enjoy yourself and consume.
Economic actors currently use the metaverse to provide virtual offers and services, such as clothing and accessories designed to change the appearance of digital avatars (“skins”), but as yet there aren’t all that many interfaces between real and virtual.
However, “metanauts” will only be interested in this environment if it provides them with real-life benefits. The absence of relevant new services was exactly what led to the Second Life platform running out of steam in the late 2000s.
These days, however, a number of initiatives provide interesting possibilities for combining real and virtual.
There’s the Yves Rocher Foundation, for example, which has committed to planting a tree in the real world for every tree planted in the Minecraft universe, while the contemporary artist Damien Hirst recently offered his works for sale in two versions: virtual (NFTs) and real. When an NFT was purchased, its double was destroyed, and vice versa.
Data, ethics and monopolistic organisation: use with risks attached
Like any innovation, the metaverse comes with its batch of potential risks. I’ve identified the main three.
The first concerns users’ data. Anonymity is already less and less safeguarded on the Internet and it’s all too likely to become almost non-existent in the metaverse.
This technology will soon be able to go a great deal further than data connected with identity alone.
For example, a car manufacturer recently developed a virtual concession enabling potential customers to try out its vehicles, modify options, and so on. If a user simply looks at a specific part of the car for a few moments, such as the dashboard, the algorithms that drive this particular universe interpret it as a subject of interest to the user in question and may deem it useful to exploit this piece of data.
Processing such information may seem virtuous at first glance, providing an ultra-personalised relationship with the brand, but the question arises of knowing exactly how all the data connected with interactions will be used in a general environment.
A second possible weakness could stem from the fact that ethical rules are not yet well defined in the metaverse. This problem will have to be given due consideration in the nearest possible future in order to avoid any eventual deviances on the part of users as well as the economic actors in place, who already have different principles in the real world depending on whether they’re from the United States, China or Europe, for example.
The third risk is connected with the metaverse’s monopolistic management.
Given the economic manna that this new playing field may represent, every operator on it will seek to become top dog. Yet, although it’s important for the public to have access to the metaverse via a global platform bringing together all possible services (shops, concerts, training, etc.), it would seem dangerous that a single operator should be able to dictate their own rules and conditions of access to and use of the metaverse. The alternative would be to create a main platform based on a decentralised system, like the systems that have developed around Web 3.0, Blockchain for example.
New opportunities for customer relations
Like the telephone, email and chat in their day, the metaverse is an invitation to rethink the customer advisor’s role. They’ll be able to get even closer to their customers, who, like them, will exist there in the form of avatars.
The possibility of creating visual, vocal and written interactions all at the same time is going to enhance our relations with customers and make use of customer advisors’ conversational and behavioural abilities in addition to calling upon their digital skills.
At Armatis, we’ve been preparing for this evolution for several years now, recruiting profiles with expertise in digital technology and developing immersive training programmes for our teams.
As customer relations experts, we have a key role to play alongside economic actors, helping them interact with their customers in accordance with the new codes imposed by the metaverse and guiding them in use of these newly emerging services.
With regard to the aforementioned risks, we’ll also be able to act as regulators.
Our expertise and customer-oriented posture makes us a trusted third party. As professionals in interacting with customers, we’re experts when it comes to questions of personal data management and behavioural ethics, two factors that may well condition the metaverse’s success.
I’d like to add one final point on which this platform will have to make progress: the ability to create amazement.
Algorithmic biases tend to put internauts in bubbles, in the midst of references and products in their own image. But it’s the happy surprises in life that make all the difference.
A good thing, as creating the unexpected is our speciality!
