Making the customer aware of your business practices sounds like a good idea: with more information about precisely what happens, the customer understands the entire process and his role in obtaining the product or service he wishes to receive. He understands why he is being asked to provide information, and what actions will be taken as a result, the delay that might occur, and the variances that could result - such that even if he doesn't get exactly what he wants as quickly as he wants, he will be more amenable to the outcome.
The problem is, the customer doesn't really care. So long as he gets what he wants when he wants it, the operations of the business are just boring details. In an ideal world, he would get exactly what he wants at the moment he wants it - but in the real world, variances and delays occur, and customers generally have some tolerance when the difference is reasonable. Ideally, if there's a problem with your business operations that cause this to occur frequently, the problem is solved by addressing your operations. But this is a digression.
The point I'm struggling to make is that the customer really doesn't care about the precise nature of the delivery mechanism with which he is interacting and may be bored, confused, or insulted when dealing with a person or process who feels the need to explain to him how the business delivers what is wanted.
An example to concretize this: most customers think that they order a meal at a restaurant, but they do nothing of the kind. They tell their waiter their preferences, and it is the waiter who places an order with the kitchen for the meal to be prepared. So technically speaking, the customer does not place an order.
In that situation, a customer would be less than pleased if the waiter interrupted them immediately, and told them "you're not the one giving orders here," and then explained to them the entire process so that they could better understand the operation of a restaurant and the roles of each of the staff. This would be unnecessary, annoying, and somewhat demeaning to the customer.
From the perspective of the customer, he is ordering the meal. The waiter is merely conveying his orders to the kitchen staff, who will then execute the customer's orders. To be told otherwise is to demean the customer, make him feel disempowered, and to relegate him to a passive role in a process. Perhaps this is the point in certain businesses, but even if the intention is to give the customer greater awareness and understanding, it doesn't contribute to the service experience.
It seems like a minor thing in the context of an isolated situation, but when it becomes a widespread practice, the customer is constantly being told that he is not empowered to do much of anything:
The customer does not book a flight
The customer does not reserve a rental car
The customer does not make an appointment
The customer does not order merchandise
The customer does not reserve a hotel room
When you consider the actual activities involved in providing a product or service, the customer does not do anything but state his preferences to others who perform various services on his behalf.
It may be a result of our evolving culture that the difference between firms becomes apparent: the business that believes "good service" means calling the customer's attention to all the things that the firm does for them takes the perspective that the customer would appreciate the firm more if he were aware of how little he is doing for himself and how much the firm is doing for him.
Said another way, it's the difference between a servant who wishes to call attention to what he is doing so that he will be valued and another who quietly does his bidding without a great deal of ceremony, knowing that it is not his actions, but their results, that are the source of value to the person on whose behalf he acts.
My sense is that, in a culture of customer empowerment, the latter is the appropriate perspective. The customer does not really care about the exactly who does what in the hubbub of activity in the back of the house - so long as he gets what he wants when he wants it,
It is especially important in the digital medium, where customers the sense that they are doing things by interacting with a computer or device. Technically, the customer is almost always removed from the actual moment at which the precise thing he wishes to do is accomplished by someone (or something) else, but still has the perception that he is doing things for himself, not merely communicating his preferences to a system that will do so. To call his attention to the various processes involved, giving him the sense that he is not actually doing anything significant at all, is obsequious and smarmy ... even if it happens to be technically accurate.
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