So CEM has become the new CRM. What rubbish. I'm TIRED and BORED with reading about the latest fad-ish terminology from the so called industry experts and the corporate marketing and PR spin doctors who are doing nothing more than trying to keep their names in print or try to find a new angle to reposition their companies and eek out some competitive advantage. So you’ve all discovered a new breed of customer, huh? Customers who somehow make their decisions differently to customers of 100 years ago? Oh, spare me. The only thing that’s changed is the technology and the mechanisms by which businesses and customers can interact. Customer loyalty has always been born out of consistently great customer experiences. It’s been that way for millennia. The only thing businesses can do is stay alert to and respond to the ever changing ways customers want their service delivered. Today, social media has been added to the mix. Tomorrow it’ll be something different. So what. The desire and need remains the same.
And another thing whilst my soap box is out. Hasn’t anyone noticed but customers have always been in control. Social media has changed nothing except make businesses more aware of this. We do it the same way we control who’s in government every 4 years - we vote with our feet if we don’t like what’s on offer or are lied to. Whether the product doesn’t match the marketing spin or the quality expected or the customer service isn’t up to expectation. Businesses have only ever been able to influence. Customers have always been the ones in control. What planet have those that think customers have suddenly wrestled control from businesses been living on?
You either ‘get’ what great customer service is as a concept, or you don’t. This continual redefining of something that has always been there just tells me people don’t get the concept. So can’t we all just cut the [***], stop saying the same thing using different words and have having endless conversations about these different words, and just get on and deliver the obvious!
Matt raises some really good and valid points. However, the bit that practically every company ignores time and time and time again, which if instilled into every member of staff from Chairperson down would minimise these sorts of incidents even happening in the first place, is a culture of great customer service. If we all took responsibility for doing this, and I mean every person in every organisation (and even every parent and teacher) these issues would hardly ever arise in the first place. And we wouldn't all need to pour as much time and resorces into social media activities (my apologies to all those making a living out of the social media industry!). Someone with a bit of business nous gave us all a clue about this way, way back but we still ignore their advice. She said 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you', i.e. if you deal out [***] be prepared to get [***] back. If companies get a pile of grief for ignoring this advice, they have only themselves to pat on back. Mind you, it does provide great entertainment for the rest of us!
My answers
So CEM has become the new CRM. What rubbish. I'm TIRED and BORED with reading about the latest fad-ish terminology from the so called industry experts and the corporate marketing and PR spin doctors who are doing nothing more than trying to keep their names in print or try to find a new angle to reposition their companies and eek out some competitive advantage. So you’ve all discovered a new breed of customer, huh? Customers who somehow make their decisions differently to customers of 100 years ago? Oh, spare me. The only thing that’s changed is the technology and the mechanisms by which businesses and customers can interact. Customer loyalty has always been born out of consistently great customer experiences. It’s been that way for millennia. The only thing businesses can do is stay alert to and respond to the ever changing ways customers want their service delivered. Today, social media has been added to the mix. Tomorrow it’ll be something different. So what. The desire and need remains the same.
And another thing whilst my soap box is out. Hasn’t anyone noticed but customers have always been in control. Social media has changed nothing except make businesses more aware of this. We do it the same way we control who’s in government every 4 years - we vote with our feet if we don’t like what’s on offer or are lied to. Whether the product doesn’t match the marketing spin or the quality expected or the customer service isn’t up to expectation. Businesses have only ever been able to influence. Customers have always been the ones in control. What planet have those that think customers have suddenly wrestled control from businesses been living on?
You either ‘get’ what great customer service is as a concept, or you don’t. This continual redefining of something that has always been there just tells me people don’t get the concept. So can’t we all just cut the [***], stop saying the same thing using different words and have having endless conversations about these different words, and just get on and deliver the obvious!
Matt raises some really good and valid points. However, the bit that practically every company ignores time and time and time again, which if instilled into every member of staff from Chairperson down would minimise these sorts of incidents even happening in the first place, is a culture of great customer service. If we all took responsibility for doing this, and I mean every person in every organisation (and even every parent and teacher) these issues would hardly ever arise in the first place. And we wouldn't all need to pour as much time and resorces into social media activities (my apologies to all those making a living out of the social media industry!). Someone with a bit of business nous gave us all a clue about this way, way back but we still ignore their advice. She said 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you', i.e. if you deal out [***] be prepared to get [***] back. If companies get a pile of grief for ignoring this advice, they have only themselves to pat on back. Mind you, it does provide great entertainment for the rest of us!