This article explores Shiny Toy Syndrome in Customer Experience — when technology becomes the focus rather than the outcome.
It’s part of our Customer Experience Hub — a collection of articles that explore the architecture, practices, and mindset behind great CX, all grounded in real-world teaching and consulting experience.
Speaking at a Government Event
I was invited to speak at a government event about technology change in the Contact Centre industry.
During the breaks, I had a chance to catch up with the other speakers. Each of them shared the same frustration.
In the brief from the agency, they had been instructed to incorporate the topic of drones into their presentations — whether or not drones had anything to do with their professional domain.
And it showed. Each speaker awkwardly grafted on a “shiny toy” slide or two at the end of an otherwise thoughtful presentation. You could almost see the apology in their faces as they tried to sound like futurist geniuses.
It didn’t ring true.
This is a classic example of Shiny Toy Syndrome in Customer Experience — when technology becomes the focus, rather than the outcome it is meant to serve.
Shiny Toy Syndrome Can Blind CX Leaders
Being anti-shiny toy syndrome doesn’t mean you’re anti-technology.
It means you’ve been around long enough to know that technology should be in the service of something bigger — not positioned as the main purpose in itself.
When technology is bolted on where it doesn’t belong, it creates noise rather than value. The drone stories at that event were a perfect example.
Your Customer Experience Strategy
When looking at technology, I always begin with the Customer Experience Strategy.
Who are we? What do we promise our customers — explicitly or implicitly?
Our CX strategy becomes the filter through which we make decisions about the experience we offer. That includes the role technology will — and will not — play.
Done well, it also unifies thinking across roles and locations. Everyone understands what kind of experience we deliver around here.
A clear North Star is a superb first step.
What Do Customers Expect?
While we would have considered this in Point #1 — the Customer Experience Strategy — it’s worth blowing this out into a domain of its own.
Sometimes referred to as Customer Understanding, Customer Insight or Voice of Customer, understanding what Customers expect from us serves as a great guide to what we offer to them.
Obviously quantitative and qualitative research have a big role to play here.
And the good news is that important learnings around Customer expectations have already been codified and are well understood.
While Customer expectations are implicit in any CX strategy, they deserve explicit attention of their own.
Strategy defines intent; Customer expectations define the minimum conditions for credibility.
For example, let’s look at Customer expectations related to a frictionless Customer Experience.
Don Peppers, in his book Customer Experience: What, How and Why Now, describes four attributes of a frictionless customer experience:
These are:
- Reliability
- Value
- Relevance
- Trustability
So if your Customer Experience strategy is heavily weighted towards delivering a frictionless experience, you’d work through these four attributes to establish how to bring them to life in your Organization.
A useful way to pressure-test technology decisions is to ask whether they help deliver on these expectations — particularly at scale.
I recently read a case study about an insurance company in the U.S. that allows customers to submit a claim by recording a short video on their mobile phone and uploading it directly to the claims team.
In many cases, claims are approved within minutes.
This isn’t impressive because of the technology itself. It’s impressive because it improves reliability, reduces friction, and builds trust at a moment that matters to the Customer.
The Role of Customer Journeys
If you’re rolling your eyes at the mention of journey mapping, I’m with you. Some organisations make journey mapping unnecessarily complex.
In my experience, the difference between successful journey mapping and failure has little to do with the map itself — and everything to do with the calibre of the people involved and their willingness to act on what they learn.
A pretty map is just that: pretty. If that’s the goal, buy a painting.
Journey maps do two things exceptionally well.
First, they cut across functional boundaries, forcing collaboration in service of a shared customer outcome.
Second, as McKinsey observed years ago, customers don’t think in touchpoints — they think in journeys.
When you mix that up with the ‘Peak-End’ construct (Kahneman & Tversky) on how Customers remember their experience you’ve got a compelling case for working through your most important Customer journeys.
When mapping journeys, the most useful question is this:
Where could technology meaningfully expand what the customer is able to do in this journey?
Not just reduce cost — but create a new opportunity that didn’t exist before.
When you apply this mental discipline to the role of technology in your Customers’ lives you’ll find many more relevant opportunities than just saying “let’s buy a chatbot!”.
Bill Gates has shared a compelling case study on how chatbots improved enrolment into higher education
The Role of Imagination vs Shiny Toy Syndrome
You can’t talk about technology today without talking about imagination.
Imagination is about thinking forward — prototyping, testing, learning, and refining.
But there is an important distinction here.
Imagination starts with a Customer problem and works forward. Shiny toy syndrome starts with a solution and looks for somewhere to attach it.
Imagination is often under-valued in command-and-control organisations, where deviation from precedent is quietly discouraged.
Implementing a Chatbot Isn’t Necessarily Award Winning
I’m not a fan of shiny toy syndrome. I am a fan of technology.
And I’m an even bigger fan of understanding the context in which technology creates a better customer experience.
No — you shouldn’t win an industry award simply because you implemented a chatbot.
But you might deserve recognition if you can clearly explain why a chatbot was the right choice, what customer problem it addressed, and how it supports your overall Customer Experience strategy.
Outcomes and judgment matter more than novelty.
Thank You for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience. If this resonates, I’d love to stay connected.
You can drop me a line anytime, or subscribe on our site.
Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com
