We recently parted company with our home phone and internet service provider. After more than 20 years of indifferent service, punctuated by periodic episodes of stunning incompetence, we pulled the plug and switched it all to the cable company. Time will tell if that is the frying pan or the fire, but the point is, what changed during the many years of our telecom relationship was not them, it was us.
If I’m being truthful, the products from the phone company are actually pretty good. When it worked, the internet speeds were more than adequate, the voice quality was excellent and we had all kinds of free things we could have used if we had only figured them out. So we’re not switching because the cable company’s product is better. We’re not even switching because the cable company’s service is better (that one remains to be seen). We’re switching because we have come to expect a great deal more than we used to.
It used to be okay to make us stay home from work to be available for the service technician who may or may not appear in the timeframe. It used to be a fact of life that we had to sit through the same conversation over and over again with a call centre. It used to be okay for the field team to be surly and unhelpful. It used to be that sometimes you just don’t have any service for a few days. It’s not okay now, and that’s because other brands showed us what it could be like.
Let’s Blame…
Our former phone company should not be blaming their technicians or their call centre people; they did what they were told to do and compensated to do. Our phone company should blame the guy who owns the shoe store up the street. That’s because John at the shoe store won’t let us leave until we are properly shod in a product that fits, works and makes us happy. John, and countless other companies of all sizes, are raising the bar, and with it the expectations of your customers. If you are losing market share or finding yourself singled out on social media for badness, here are some other companies you can go ahead and blame.
- Blame Starbucks for users demanding a customized solution in the time it takes you to crank out a standard one
- Blame Apple for creating an accessible and human ongoing support channel
- Blame Zappos for making the clients expect courteous, effective service when they change their minds
- Blame WestJet for getting your customers to expect a little fun and humanity
- Blame Amazon for getting them used to near-instant gratification
- Blame Etsy for making people crave craft
- Blame Whole Foods for getting them to think about where stuff comes from
- Blame Patagonia for showing clients there doesn’t need to be a trade-off between making good things and being good people
- Blame Texture for getting people used to a new way of consuming content that still feels like the old way
When you’ve run out of other brands to blame, go find a thing you can do really well that will elevate the expectations your customers will have of your competitors.
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BizMarketer is written by Elizabeth Williams
I help companies have better conversations
Drop me a line at ewilliams@candlerchase.com
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