The Hindu Business Line : Disconnected in a connected world

We live in a highly connected world. We are connected 24/7 wherever we are in numerous ways through mobile phones, Internet, GPRS, Blackberry, satellite TV and what have you. We are always just a few seconds away from people if we choose to get in to uch with them and them with us. Communication technology in many forms pervades our life and is meant to help us stay connected and keep in touch.

Intense competition has forced companies to take customers and building relationships seriously and give the customer a better deal. In the business world, there is no doubt that communication technology has opened up numerous opportunities for companies to improve customer-facing activities. The Internet has made the world the shopping area – not just for industrial buyers but even for retail buyers. It has helped customers get good deals, reduce purchasing cost, increase knowledge, exercise control over the purchase process and get real-time information on transactions and processes. These facilities have become a matter of routine and are no longer great differentiators for companies.

Yet as I look around, I find this same technology that helps us connect and come closer is actually getting us disconnected and moving us further away from people. In a social context, technology is making us more impersonal and almost automated in responses. We no longer send a personalised birthday card signed by us or even call a friend on important occasions. Hallmark.com does this for us. We send group e-mails and group SMS on important occasions. Unfortunately, even condolence messages are sent on group mailsTechnology has, in fact, been very effective in distancing us from people emotionally. This seems to be extending itself into the business world which is suicidal for companies.

Connected – yes. But are we connecting?

Let’s look at the business world. We are more connected with customers through technology but are we really connecting with customers? What is happening in many pre-sales, during sales and post-sales activities? The management mantra is all about customer relationships, loyalty, retention, zero defections but we are in the age of impersonalised, automated service thanks to technology. We have IVRs, automated group mail, automated responses to queries and complaints. The personal touch is getting lost. In the business world, while the mantra is customer service and building relationships, strangely, it is the same technology that is making it a challenge to achieve these goals. Are service providers using technology sensibly in the interest of the customer? Or are customers mere e-mail ids and account numbers? An automated mail addressing the customer by name – Dear Mr X – is not enough to qualify as a personal mail any longer. If technology is to be used to be truly customer-oriented, organisations need to ask themselves if technology is helping them to:

See and treat the customer as an individual and deliver personalised service to her.

Help customers do their jobs and value customer’s time.

Make it easy for customers to deal with the company.

Show the customer you care - connect emotionally.

Demonstrate to the customer that she is more than just an account number. Use data base management and data mining to understand and track customer behaviour and address him as an individual. Technology can make the customer relationship process extremely personal or extremely impersonal. A few years ago, I got an attractively designed mailer from Jet Airways that said: “Now we see you. Now we don’t.” It went on to say that Jet noticed that I had not flown Jet for some time and that it missed having me on board and would I please give it the pleasure of seeing me back on Jet. Imagine, me, one of numerous flyers and Jet actually telling me, Ramesh Venkateswaran, that I am not just a Jet Privilege number.

That they actually noticed that I wasn’t flying with them. I not only felt like a king – I actually felt guilty. Here was this nice airline that values me and shows that I matter to them. And lousy me – not reciprocating their goodness by flying their airline. From that day, I shifted to Jet and have been flying it always – unless schedules do not permit. A good example of using technology to be personal. Over the last few years, I have received mailers from them on two or three similar occasions, when I have not travelled for three months or so. This personalised service seems to be by design and not accident.

I have owned a credit card of a leading multinational bank for many years. The service is good, bills come on time, and I get queries answered when required. On the few occasions I have had to deal with them for some problems, they have been efficient in taking action. In short, I have no significant complaints about them. In fact, I am satisfied with them. As we all know, we get points for using the card that can be redeemed for various specified options.

The bills reflect the credit to my account accurately. But in all the years I have accumulated points for using the card, not once have I got a mail from them asking me why I was not using a facility they had provided me. They are probably relieved that I am not using their points and thus reducing their liability. Thus, while I am most definitely a satisfied customer of the bank, I am not a great brand ambassador. They have kept me satisfied but have not made an emotional connect with me in all these years. I would be in the category of a potential promiscuous customer – with some inertia. Not an evangelical salesman customer that I am for Jet.

Or take the case of a leading timeshare I am a member of – one of its early members. Here again, no complaint. And no emotional connect. I have accumulated many days of unutilised time to my credit. There is no specific communication from the company asking me why I was not using my holiday time share even though I have paid for it. An added action to show concern could be to find out if I have any problem or dissatisfaction because of which I have not used it in the last few years. They could also inform me that some part of the time share would lapse if I did not use it immediately. This would connect me to the company emotionally. The chances are that I may still not use the time share to my credit but I am happy that I am a member of a company that cares for its customers.

Like numerous others I get regular mails from the company asking me to refer new members to them, with a carrot dangled in front of me: Digital camera or a holiday to Malaysia. Come on – I can afford a camera and a holiday to Malaysia. What I want is to be connected emotionally with my service provider where I feel the company actually cares for me and the money I have invested in them. Thus, the first challenge of connecting in a connected world is to use technology to go beyond the mundane and obvious and emotionally link up with customers.

Value customer’s time - help them do their job

Any organisation exists only because someone wants its output of product or service. This person is the customer. Every company must have all its processes and systems tuned towards making it easy and convenient for the customer to deal with the company at every touch point.

I recently called in to a leading international courier company to check the status of a document sent to me. An automated message immediately thanked me for the call and told me that their customer service reps were busy and would be with me soon. I then listened to the mandatory music. After about 10 seconds or so the voice told me that the reps were still busy and would be with me soon and back to the same 10 seconds of music. The next message after another 10 seconds said they were sorry that their reps were still busy and would be with me soon. They thanked me for my patience this time. I thought, wow, here is an automated system that is sensitive. Back to music – the same clip. This continued for about three-and-a-half minutes after which I hung up.

It was bad enough I had to hold on for so long, I also had to listen to the same repetitive piece of music. Thankfully, it was not the corporate spiel that many companies use about the great products and services they offer.

After about two minutes or so, I thought what the company must appreciate in me is not my patience but my perseverance for holding on for so long. What was the company doing to make it easier for me to deal with the company? Nothing. Was it using technology sensibly? It wasn’t. Without getting into queuing theory and waiting times and so on,

I thought a simple and obvious thing to do was to use technology that is customer-oriented. After 45 or 60 seconds, the system could give the customer the option of hanging up and assuring her that a customer service rep would get back to her at the number registered within a stipulated time - the next 10 or 15 minutes. The customer could also give an alternative number if she so desired. The customer hangs up.

The company gets back to her within the stipulated time. The customer is actually happy – the company stands by their word and can be relied upon. In the process they have not only used technology to value the customer’s time and make it easy for the customer, they have also created an opportunity to build an image and goodwill out of a potential problem.

On a lighter (yet serious) vein, they could also ask the customer to punch in their degree of upset on a 1 to 5 scale so that the rep who calls back deals with the customer suitable to the feeling level at that time.

Tom Peters tells the story of Fedex and its reputation to pick up phones on the first or second ring. He narrates the time he called in to Fedex and the phone was not picked up for about four or five rings. He hung up and dialled again. The phone was picked up on the first ring. He knew it. He must have dialled the wrong number the first time. According to him, the customer could make a mistake, not FedEx! That is the power of image. This is how reputations are built.

Make it easy for customers to do business with you

Sometime ago, when returning from the US, I was downgraded from First Class to Business Class on a sector due to a change in the aircraft. I assumed that this international airline would obviously make good the difference in fare without my having to ask for it. The obvious was obviously not obvious to the airline. After 100 days of follow-up through my travel agent and a logged-in complaint with the usual auto response, I was told by the Customer Service department of the airline that they would be happy to refund the amount if I produced a copy of the ticket jacket and the original boarding card. I explained to them that I had an electronic ticket and that they could check with my Loyalty membership account on my ticket details and that I had in fact travelled on the airline and had travelled Business Class instead of First. The fairly standard, unsympathetic reply from the company was that as a company procedure their audit department needed the ticket jacket and boarding card!

An angry letter to the country head finally helped me get the refund due to me – after almost four months and tremendous wastage of my time. All of this was for a situation the airline was responsible for in the first place and where the company had all details in their data base in the first place.

Today there is so much information available in customer databases, there is little that a customer needs to provide to complete a transaction. Yet, companies are often blind to the obvious, and make it difficult for the customer. This is even more serious since very often the customer asks for remedying a situation or failure for which the company was responsible in the first instance. I am unable to understand why companies cannot use technology to their advantage.

What is the use of all the networks and databases that are so elaborately planned at great expense to the company if they are not ultimately to help customers?

Customers are human beings

Most companies offer very similar products and schemes to lock in customers – loyalty programmes, rewards and so on. Today’s average customer would carry numerous such cards in his wallet –credit or debit cards, some loyalty cards from airlines, major department stores, other retails outlets and so on. The question is how much of your card is he using? You will get adequate share of wallet only if there is an emotional connect between the customer and the company.

As Jan Carlzon of Scandinavian Airline Systems said a few years ago – “In the ’80s companies saw customers in every individual. Now we must see individuals in every customer.” These are very powerful words. Look at customers as human beings with both physical and emotional needs that need to be satisfied. Companies need to go beyond the obvious satisfaction of the core product or service.

Technology can play an important role in helping companies make this happen – in making the emotional connect. This is the bond in the networked world that will hold customers to you and make them come back for more.

The writer is Director, SDM Institute for Management Development, Mysore.

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