Out of touch with your customers?

Prefer to listen?

Staff shortages, wage increases and customers being generally short on time make a good business case for using automated customer-service solutions. Machines don’t need to be kept happy by their owners; employees don’t have to deal with grumpy customers; and customers who don’t feel like interacting with a human can still get what they want… It seems like a win-win, right? 

In 2011, Gartner predicted that “By 2020, the customer will manage 85% of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human.” 

I think their prediction was pretty accurate – but I don’t think removing human interactions has been completely positive. 

Over the past few weeks, I’ve sat in circles, workshops and panel discussions with managing directors and general managers from varied industries, and I’ve heard statements like these multiple times: 

• “We’re losing customer intimacy and we need to get it back.” 
• “We need to reassess our service model, and stop making our customers do the work” 
• “We’ve become too customer compliant; we’re losing the emotional connection.” 

These are the real conversations taking place behind boardroom doors and in private Zoom rooms of late: conversations about seeking to stay in touch with customers. 

I reflect on my own experience last weekend in a very nice restaurant, where I spent three hours eating good food and enjoying great company. The experience came to a cold halt, however, when I was handed the EFTPOS machine to complete my transaction. The interaction concluded without a word of thanks, a warm farewell or a gesture of gratitude – an opportunity lost, and perhaps a customer lost now too. 

Your customers are seeking trusted friends in those they do business with. 

Your customers are seeking meaning in exchange for money. 

Your customers are seeking solutions, yes, but also connections with the people who serve those solutions, especially after so much change, isolation and disconnection worldwide. 

Customer service is a vehicle through which people seek more familiar relationships: a sense of belonging and connection in their everyday lives. 

Have we really got our finger on the pulse, or are we just obsessed with putting our customers fingers on a button? 

Question 

Where are there opportunities to maintain human-to-human interaction in your service?  

Practice 

Asking customers what they want – getting feedback and data on their needs and desires – is critical at this juncture of society. Let’s not make assumptions: let’s practise asking more questions instead, so we’re not out of touch with our customers.