The ‘Always On Consumer’
Today’s consumer sets sky high demands on the products and services they buy. The service excellent, the companies environment friendly, the products and services bought from the couch and 24/7 accessibility. Through all possible channels. Just be there where the customer is. But one mistake and you are immediately exchanged for another.
How is this possible? Do we spoil the customers too much? Let’s take a closer look!
Recently I saw a sign of a optician. Not a retailer of a large company, but an old-fashioned optician. The glasses in the shopping window are at least as old as the shop, but as the seller says: ‘ the frames are old, but never worn ‘.
The opening hours of the shop are remarkable ‘We are usually open between 11.00 AM till 6.00 PM’. No mention of Twitter, Facebook or Live Chat, no helpdesk or webshop. This is it. In the window of an electronics store next to this store, probably in the same year of construction as the optician, we find the message ‘ buy it at the man who can repair’.
Craftsmanship, that was the only thing counted years ago. ‘I’m good at what I do, no one does things better and therefore you buy at my shop’. Nothing more, nothing less. Why is that yet so different these days? Why should the messages preceding shopkeepers have in their shopping window are no longer sufficient?
The current consumer is spoiled. We are too few distinctive. The only way to bind the consumer, if your product or service is ‘ one of a kind ‘, is with excellent service. But how do you do that? You seem to only stand out if you’re not there at the time that the customer wants. Recently I saw a message on Facebook from someone who got no contact with a company on Sunday morning by Twitter and he could not find them on Facebook. His post was accompanied with terms like # fail and was liked, retweeted and shared by hundreds of followers. While until recently is was very normal that you could reach companies only within office hours.
But is there a way back? Can customers continue to expect that companies are available at their service at any time of the day, through every possible channel? How do we, the companies and brands, get back in charge?
The answer: go back to craftsmanship! Create products and services that another company can’t make, be distinctive and unique and give answer to a not yet existing demand of the customer. If you are the only one that provides the service or product, then they surely want to buy it within office hours.
So, with which innovation are you going to surprise your customer? Looking forward to your thoughts.
Dimphy van Heusden is founder and strategist at HEUS?! Marketing.