Commentary
The Straw That Broke The Market's Back
- by Gord Hotchkiss , Featured Contributor, May 9, 2013
Customers are fickle -- and I suspect they’re getting more fickle. Perhaps they’re even feeling a little entitled.A recent survey shows that customers tend to bail on a company not because of a big time screw-up, but because of the accumulation of a lot of little annoyances. Soon, their frustration …
There's no doubt in online/social media, squeeky wheels stand out. But speaking just as a consumer for a moment, I have to say I think even with the advent of data-driven marketing, CRM, personalization & interaction, the quality of actual service experienced on a human level has gone DOWN. I'm talking about the people you get on the phone when you need a real question or issue to be addressed...if you can even get a human being on the phone. I'm thinking here of phone companies, cable companies, big banks, airlines, etc., where it seems to me technology has been an excuse to move budgets from customer service to customer acquisition. The consumer is bombarded by multi-channel efforts to recruit them, and then immediately orphaned once they sign on. Too many large companies provide the bare minimum in actual service, if that.
So Ron, why do you think that is ?
Some elements of service can be boiled down to KPIs and managed on a spreadsheet, but it's also an art and has to involve real people, and I think the quants have taken over the asylum. It's like we're not chasing quality service which involves a qualitative aspect...we're chasing a quantitative facsimile of quality service.
Thought provoking Gord. As both a consumer and an executive I try and treat customers as I want to be treated. I think a lot of big companies & our Government lost some of that focus.
What's often forgotten are that expectations are really "silent demands" which turn into resentments when they are not met. How are companies supposed to meet unknown expectations and then handle customer resentments? Companies forget that it's cheaper to make existing customers happy verses acquire a new customer.
If a company looks at customer acquisition cost versus retention costs and their acquisition cost is cheaper, something is messed up.
Often, the disconnect between management, marketing and sales leads to mismanagement of customer expectations. And, as consumers, we know that advertisers are trying to sell us on a lot of "vaporware". What's the point in blaming someone when we believe the hype?
We all know the real "truth in advertising" and set our own false expectations; then want to blame someone else when our beliefs seem incorrect.
Grass is always greener is a belief and perspective that some folks will believe. And since perception is not a fact, but a reflection of the belief of the perceiver; then do we question our beliefs?
What happens if it turns out that the grass wasn't greener? Well, then our mind must choose between "what is" or "what should be", and when there is a conflict, it will always report what should be. Unless of course we're being really, really honest with ourselves.
I pretty much agree with Ron's comments above. The level of service, which is the slow world was usually performed face-to-face has DECLINED through the effort to automate it.
The effort to automate which we all anticipated has turned out to be an exercise in off-loading services the vendor performed onto the user. We do the queries. We do the payment process. We do the printing. And the vendor has supposedly put some snow on the slide to enable us to do it all, in a trice, wearing our pajamas.
It takes hours and hours to buy an airline ticket - unless I call my travel agent. Trying to reach someone to deal with my problem at PayPal has just taken 24 hours.
Service and support are critical pieces of brand reputation but they so often get outsourced to the other side of the world.
Your view that the internet has raised expectations seems only half right to me as a customer. It's raised my expectations that I can find what I want somehow somewhere. But my expectations for a hassle free experience have become fragile over time.
Well done Ron - I appreciate anyone who reminds me that sometimes, a qualitative approach trumps a quantitative done. In general I totally agree with your comments, but I still believe that there is an inflation of expectations on the customer side as well.