The Seventh Age of Management

Over the course of the last twenty years or so, we have seen a change in notions about and expectations of customer service that can only be described as a “tsunami”, for its speed and its radical nature. This change has swept across the Western world, altering the expectations of both workers and customers in very profound ways, changing the workplace and the customer/worker interface profoundly, and transforming our expectations in terms of life-style and accountability immeasurably.

At its most simple, we see the effects of this tsunami in the fact that companies today are much more customer-oriented than they used to be. One of the reasons for this is the simple fact that customers are very much more discerning than before. They know that there are many ways to get what they want, and they are unlikely to stick with a company that gives them bad service or shoddy products. If they cannot find what they want in a shop or office near their home, they can probably find an alternative product on the Internet, or order it on the phone. This degree of flexibility, from the consumer’s viewpoint, means that every company’s job today is to keep the customers that they already have, increase the debt that they have with them, and work on increasing their share of the customer market by attracting new customers. Given all the competition, the only way to do this is to maintain an extremely customer-focused approach in every aspect of the business. Many companies offer very similar products or services, and it is not always easy to differentiate qualitatively between these products and services; what is better, a book from Waterstones or the same one from W.H. Smith? A Big Mac or a Whopper? MasterCard or Visa? A night at the local Hilton or a night at the local Best Western? And yet, customers’ experiences of identical or near-identical products or services can be very different, depending on their interaction with the product or service provider. They will return to the shop or restaurant or hotel where they felt cared about as individuals, where their opinions and tastes were taken seriously. Where customer service was palpably central to the organisation’s modus operandi. Yes, the difference in terms of customer satisfaction often lies in customers’ experience of interacting with the company in question. An example? You have almost certainly heard of Internet retail giant Amazon. Initially launched in 1997 to sell books, Amazon quickly diversified to provide a wide range of consumer goods via the Internet, including entertainment paraphernalia and equipment, clothes, and household goods. The company’s experience has not all been plain sailing—negotiating the new retail environment of the Internet was a steep learning curve for anyone who dared to go there in the 1990s—but despite ups and downs, Amazon has weathered the storms and consistently performed better than its nearest competitors, such as Barnes and Noble, as well as a myriad of smaller companies, most of which went belly-up. The reason why? Well, in November, 2006, MarketWatch identified Amazon as the winner in a United States nation-wide survey of the companies with the best customer service. Although customers rarely, if ever, interact directly with Amazon employees, the consumer/retailer interface is focussed on the consumer not just as the bearer of the all-important credit card, but as a human being whose needs are respected, and whose individuality is recognised. The company utilises software that uses customer’s previous choices to suggest other items that they might like to buy, on the basis of their preferences. It is easy to contribute directly to the site in the form of a review, and Amazon customers become not just shoppers, but also part of a virtual community of sorts. They feel involved with the company, and when their reviews are posted, they can see that their views are respected, and their experience with Amazon is not one of being treated as a mere number, but as someone who matters; all of this without so much as ever seeing one single Amazon employee! MarketWatch quoted the United States National Retailers Federation President, Tracy Mullin, as saying that, “Consumers are beginning to demand more from retailers and are making conscious decisions about where to shop based on their expectations for good service.”

Quite.

Conversely, look what happened when IBM failed to take note of the huge cultural changes occurring around us, and just did not change with the times. IBM once dominated the field of computation to the extent that any other organisation in computers was brushed off like a Jack Russell nipping at the heels of an Alsatian. Then, as so often happens, IBM grew arrogant. It was used to being the only big player in the field, and it made little effort to make computers accessible to the masses, or to communicate effectively with its customer base. In 1993, IBM’s Lou Gerstner famously announced, “The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision.”