Anthony J. BradleyI, and just about every other person I know, is an antisocial customer. What do I mean by this? It is simple, I don’t want to talk to your company. I want to talk to my wife, I want to talk to my friends, I want to talk to my neighbors (well, except for the people 2 houses down who let their dog bark at Midnight…so annoying!). I don’t want to talk to an insurance representative, loan officer, utility call center rep, retail clerk, and I really don’t want to talk to government workers. I want to be able to do what I need to do fast and without assistance. The only time I really want to talk to your company is when I have a problem I can’t solve myself. Oh, and also, I don’t want to have a problem that forces me to talk with you. Am I alone here? Who are my fellow antisocial customers? I know you are out there.
This should be good news because talking to me is very expensive. I bring this up because there is a great deal of sentiment out there on “interpersonal” service for customer intimacy (often postulated as an argument against social software and other Web based means of customer service). Interpersonal service and customer satisfaction are not the same. Companies need to really examine where human contact is necessary (I chose the term necessary specifically). You should start with the assumption that your customers (internal or external) want to do it without human contact.
Community-driven self service is a major and growing application of social software. Instead of being the hub of customer support, the call center becomes an important participant in a self service support community. Many benefits accrue from this approach:
- Scale support without scaling call center costs
- Reduce the cost per issue
- Enhance customer satisfaction
- Greater customer awareness
- etc.
BTW, I’m using customer in the broadest sense meaning those you serve (e.g., HR serves employees, IT serves users) not just those who pay you. What is your antisocial customer strategy?
Category: social solutions Tags: community-driven
1 response so far ↓
1 Douglas Haider March 16, 2009 at 11:17 am
Anthony,
I think that is what a big part of Web 2.0 is all about – social networking. As you know, the shift in technology is what enables the behavior you are talking about where customers talk with each other, instead of directly to the retailer or service provider.
Conversations about a product or service are no longer controlled by the organization (as they were in the day of mass media such as television and radio advertising). These conversations are being generated by the community, and the smart thing is for organizations to embrace these conversations, not hide from them.
Seth Godin’s book “Meatball Sundae” discusses this in great detail and he goes further to say that organizations that will thrive in the future have to align their ENTIRE ORGANIZATION with “new marketing” such as web 2.0 and social media.
Great insight with this blog post! I think there are some efficiency gains and cost savings with handling customer service in this manner. However, I agree with Mr. Godin in the fact that this is only the tip of the iceberg.