The May issue of Wells Fargo Insights newsletter starts beautifully, “Complexity is pervasive. It erodes the experiences of your customers, employees, and internal business partners. Companies focused on keeping it simple reap financial rewards and meet customers' expectations.” All three items in the newsletter are important.

Simplicity as a meta-trend

Simplicity guided Steve Jobs in building one of the world’s best companies. But an ethos of effortlessness is not necessarily easy to achieve. Jobs said it best, “Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.”

The item goes on to ask, “Is simplicity worth the effort?” And answers, YES giving important details why:

• Simplicity makes customers stay
• Effort makes customers leave.

Simplicity - a defining quality of the customer experience

Using Intel’s infographic on the Internet of things (apparently there are going to be 200 billion by 2020), WF pick out four key trends again showing the importance of simplicity.

Using faster payments to provide simplicity

Their webinar on how Allstate Insurance used their new fast mobile e-payment and QuickCard Pay solution to simplify the customer experience and the claims payment process for adjustors. Allstate’s #1 concern that drove the project was how: will this change customer experience? will this help our customer satisfaction? Will it get money to people faster?

Another important finding was that simplicity requires conscious collaboration. And that simplicity is the key to adoption by adjusters and customers.    

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CTMfile take: These lessons on simplicity and effortless ease of use apply to the corporate treasury department too. Would the services you supply really get an “A” for ease? do they encourage greater use of your services?