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The Empire Strikes Back?

Written by: Paul Bridle

Article Overview: This week I came across the expression ‘Vigilante Consumer’ for the first time. It seems that consumers are starting to strike back at companies that make it difficult to deal with them when they have a problem. You know what I mean? They have the attitude that they are perfect or at least doing the best that is physically possible to be done and you have a problem that shows a mistake has been made or that the system has failed. You want to explain the problem and nobody listens!

The Empire Strikes Back?

You phone the customer service desk and get put in a queue to talk to someone. You wait to find out that this is not the person to deal with your problem. Somebody will phone you back and then they don’t. So it goes on…

In USA a 68 year old woman waited for two hours to see a manager and in frustration she went out and got a sledge hammer and proceeded to smash a keyboard and telephone whilst shouting “now will you listen to me?” Maybe a bit extreme but tell me that you can’t feel empathy with her in a world where speaking to a human being is hard work and speaking to one that will take ownership and show empathy is like finding ‘a needle in a haystack’.

All we want is to be treated like human beings and respected as customers. In an age where people’s expectations are higher than they ever have been, many organizations only have the human interaction to create a cutting edge and differentiate them from their competitor.

So why do we have such poor service? It is mostly due to laziness. Companies are so focused on cutting costs that they have forgotten what makes business work. Business works when people pay for something. Everything else that the organization does is simply a means to that end. A successful transaction of money for a reason is what an organization desires.

Too many organizations are focused on making that happen quickly, as opposed to successfully. The desire for speed has overtaken the need to ensure that the transaction is fulfilled satisfactorily. People are focused on the next sale when this one has not yet been successfully completed. Worse then this, they make the assumption that the customer will always return and have the right impression of them – based on speed!!!!!

The human touch is being ignored and sacrificed for speed.

But, it seems that the consumer has decided to take a stand. “Enough” is the cry from emerging throngs of people who will not sit back and allow their position be undermined by an organization that is going faster than it’s feet can carry it.

I call it the ‘Empire Strikes Back’, because the new Empire is not a country but rather a group of people scattered across the globe that want to hit back. They have no command structure, as such, but they have a purpose and a dedication to seek revenge where arrogance once resided and cruelly ruled the land.

What is their weapon? Well they have discovered a weapon called the ‘internet’. The bomb they drop or bullet they fire is knowledge. They take the knowledge and use the internet to spread the knowledge of bad service to the other consumers who may want to spend hard earned money, but want a good return on that money.

As businesses, we need to understand the value of our relationships with the people we touch. The consumer is more demanding and also has more choices. The consumer remembers and their memory is even sharper as an economic downturn starts to kick in. The consumer is not unreasonable; the consumer just wants to be treated with respect and dignity.

There is no greater impact than to be treated with respect and dignity. It is not expensive and does not take a lot of time. It is the unseen connection that depends on your people and your systems.

Welcome to the arrival of the new Empire. It has no flag, it carries no brand name, it does not have a head office, there are no battleships and certainly no hierarchy. There is a passion for justice and a vision of a better world.

A world of respect for the value of ‘the transaction’ and the importance of connection.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please be upstanding and welcome please, your friend and mine, the Consumer Empire!

Paul Bridle

Leadership Methodologist

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Article Tags: assumption, business work, business works, competitor, customer service desk, cutting edge, desire, empathy, frustration, human beings, human interaction, keyboard, money, needle in a haystack, next sale, old woman, organization desires, queue, rsquo, sledge hammer



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