In the 1950s, “Customer Service” didn’t even exist. It was part of the fabric of the way everyone did business, but no one talked or wrote about it. It meant a clerk from a hardware or grocery store who carried his shopping bag to his car. It meant that the milkman delivered dairy products directly to your door. It meant receiving a handwritten thank you note from the local family store for purchasing a poodle skirt for the big dance.
Some time after this, the service changed and got a bit confusing as we focused on other priorities: paying attention to civil rights, international conflicts, and equal treatment at work and at home. Businesses simply tried to survive, and as the more traditional structure unraveled, service became more rushed and less personal.
Customer service made a strong comeback in the 1980s and 1990s, and with it came CRM: Customer Relationship Management. Paper client diaries—customer records of purchases, preferences, and personal information—began to move online. Trends were tracked. Segmentation was employed and exploited. It was all about “surprise and delight,” and both businesses and customers benefited for a while. It should be noted, however, that this was a milestone on the road to the loss of privacy.
Over time, it became more and more difficult to surprise and delight… companies calculated that this cost more than they had planned. Customers realized that their standards and expectations had risen, and they became jaded and disillusioned as companies were unable to meet these expectations. Fortunately, customer experience arrived and the ‘wow’ was reintroduced. In this new age, it was no longer enough to provide complimentary wrapping for that special jewelry purchase, or to know that your best customer’s dog’s name was Fluffy Magoo. Providing a great customer experience meant that the complimentary wrapping paper had Fluffy’s photo printed on it. It meant that whether the customer was shopping in the store, on their laptop, or from his smartphone, Fluffy’s wish list was accessible. It meant that a purchase from this wish list would result in a 5% donation to the local animal shelter, by the company. The stakes were growing, and new ways to reach and impact the customer were innovative and exciting, and again, expensive. It is human nature to draw from the same. It is human nature to want something new. We wonder what’s better, what’s different, and what’s next.
So while the customer experience remains strong, there will inevitably be a ‘next’, and companies will want to be there to welcome the future customer. What is this ‘next’?
To set the stage, let’s talk about Social Influencers. In the mid-1980s, my high school Social Influencers were two young women, let’s call them Annie and June, who couldn’t have been more different from each other, but equally revered and watched for their sense of style and demeanor. Annie was from a wealthy family and was known for her blonde hair that always looked perfect on royal salon visits (most of us went to SuperCuts to take our chances) and for having all the colors (14!) of Izod Lacoste (now known as Lacoste) crocodile polo shirt that I had acquired in a larger town (our small town only had two colors at the local Bon-Ton). She was preppy and managed to pull off the “pink and green” color scheme that was so popular, without looking tacky. She was always smiling, she never cursed, she had a million friends (today’s “squad”) and all of her teachers loved her. She was the Taylor Swift of her time and what I would call an “active” influencer. June, on the other hand, wore the same pair of faded Levi’s every day (but they fit her like Brooke’s Calvins), had frizzy unruly hair, rarely wore makeup, and had a posture reminiscent of James Dean (June? Dean?). She was super smart, a bit aloof, and a bit unpredictable. I think people, including her teachers, were a little scared of her. She was super cool without even trying. She was the Nasty Gal Sophia Amoruso of her time. She was a “passive” influencer, as she never talked about herself, her clothes, or her friends.
I admired them both, and I still wear Levi’s at the age of 51 (I have them old and faded, and new and darkly crisp). And I have a neatly folded white and lime green Izod shirt in my closet, which served me well this summer. Annie and June, after so many years, you still have influence.
Why are Social Influencers important and what do they have to do with the next wave following Customer Service and Customer Experience?
This next wave is what I call Consumer Fusion. Why ‘Consumer’ and not ‘Customer’? Customer implies a purchase, an exchange of money for goods or services. Consumer is broader: you can consume something (a free play in Central Park, a sunset on the beach in Cape May), without expressly paying for it, and without realizing in some cases, to which brand or company or institution you have to thank for consumption. You need (or want) the brand entity, and the brand entity needs and wants you. Symbiosis, especially if it is recognized and measured, will lead to a deeper understanding of the cause and effect of actions, both large and small, on the health, profits, and perception of the brand or company. Entities that can adequately capitalize on this merger will benefit.
There would be a “Fusion Score”, the number resulting from the measurement of the symbiotic relationship between a client (Consumer) and a brand, in a certain sense, the “perception of health” of the relationship. Did the brand host an outdoor concert for teens, and three days later, see a spike in sales? Did a pop artist performing at that concert wear that same brand’s sparkly one-shoulder sweater and gain another 100,000 Twitter followers? His Fusion Score goes up 3 points. This artist a week later, while wearing the same sparkly sweater, gives a bad tip at the hottest restaurant in Hollywood because she had a salmon dish that she tasted bad (and tweets about it)? His joint Fusion Score goes down, because while the restaurant is to blame for the lousy fish dish, the pop artist blamed the waiters, when it was the kitchen’s fault, making the artist look mean. Her Fusion Score just dropped 8 points, as did the artist’s Fusion Score with the sweater brand.
You may be thinking… what does this have to do with me or the average person? We’re not pop stars, or makeup bloggers with a million followers…why should I care? Well, just as Annie and June, ordinary young women from a small town, can be influential people (even 35 years later), so can you. And it’s important to realize that you can be active or passive, and still be an influence. You can be an extrovert or an introvert. You can shop fully and invisibly online, or be highly visible at your local malls and boutiques, in person. You can be a partier or a poetry reading participant.
Companies and entities still need to worry about their brand perception with everyone, not just Taylors and Sophias. You matter. You have the power to shape what those brands spend, create their products, give their charitable contributions, and pay their employees. You vote with your feet, with your wallet and with your voice. The brand can shape your image, your perceptions and your well-being, and in turn you do the same for it. Fusion. The future… not just FOR the customer, but WITH the consumer.