It happened so gradually I can't remember the exact moment, but at some point the people who buy and use the things our clients produce stopped being customers and started being consumers. This also seems to coincide with a change in how we (manufacturers, service providers, researchers) view these people.
The customer was always right. A consumer is faceless unit in a market segment, whose only purpose is to purchase and consume whatever we produce.
Somewhere along the way we lost our respect for the people to whom we owe our existance. Hell, we forgot that they are people at all. We don't even bother to pick up the phone when they call us anymore because it's not cost effective. They should be able to fix their own problems by going to the FAQ on our website. If that doesn't work they can send us an email, but we get lots of email and it might take awhile for us to respond. If email fails or takes too long, too bad for you but please continue to buy what we sell.
I propose we banish the word 'consumer' from our vocabulary, and upgrade our consumers to friends. If we start treating them with respect, if we start to listen to them instead of just bombarding them with advertising, maybe -- in time -- we will win their trust and they will want to talk to us when we have questions to ask them.
1 comments:
Great post! I stumbled upon it when searching for references to "customer vs "consumer." I refuse to think of myself as merely a consumer of goods and services, and because of this I am often infuriated by the lack of customer service I receive from businesses of every kind. I'm tired of being treated like a "purchasing unit" rather than a human being, and I wish more people were of the same mindset. Saving a few pennies does not compensate for the lack of respect and caring I receive from most companies.
I imagine this shift occurred at just about the same time that the 40-hour work-week was changed to a 45-hour work week, without anyone seeming to notice. It used to be that one worked Monday-Friday from 9-5, and that included 5 hours of paid lunchtime!
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