I miss the days where I could walk up to my neighbourhood cosmetics counter, and they would know me by name.
This personalized conversation has been traded in for an online shopping experience and an amazon prime account that allows me to shop without even leaving my house.
As a bonus, instead of launching a complaint to my cosmetician, I can send it across several social platforms and get support for my cranky assessment.
In the end, all these changes give more power to the consumer. We get more selection, faster, more efficiently and we can express our opinions.
The customer wants what they want when they want it. They expect immediate gratification and have a fierce resolve to express their opinion and be heard.
Because it is so easy to search the internet for other products and a better price, loyalty is also challenged. Effortless customer experience trumps loyalty, simplifying a customers life is more important than creating relationships.
Face to face service experiences are phasing out, yet those individual encounters are an organization's best tool to create customer-centered connection and be more in tune with the consumer.
In today’s busy and distracted life, If somebody takes the time to complain, it usually means it matters to them. If it matters to them, it matters to others like them.
Paying attention to these concerns and building solutions around them brings us back to real customer-centered service. I think relationships and loyalty still matter, as long as your providing a good product, at a reasonable price and you make it easy for the consumer to get it, use it and express their feedback.
Consumers still care about how a product or organization makes them feel. If they trust the company and the value of their products, they are much more likely to be loyal.
Personally, I love how technologies like Uber, Airbnb, and online banking have made my life so much easier. It indeed does put the consumer in the position of power.
What do you think?
I enjoy a podcast by Customer Service Motivational Speaker Ron Kaufman
