I am about to do a number of speaking gigs in North America and Central America over the next 12 months and I have been working on presenting the concept of the 'Intention Economy'. The term Intention Economy was coined by Doc Searls, a Harvard Professor and refers to the changing dynamic of the consumer-business landscape and power base.
We are now at the beginning of a fundamental shift in the relationship between consumers and businesses and their respective bargaining capacity. The power is swinging at long last away from businesses to consumers.It has been too long that businesses have dictated how consumers behave, interact and purchase. It’s time that the consumers dictate how businesses act. After all it is the consumer who has the money, doesn’t that mean they actually have the power in the relationship? We reckon so.
Why isn't it the case that if a consumer has a need to buy something they post it up on a site and then businesses vie to win their account? This is the tenet already of some cool Aussie sites such as 99designs or One Big Switch.
These Intention sites are however more product focused than customer service focused and we are now looking to organisations to lead the way with what happens after the sale. This is where our industry needs to focus. And social media and mobile apps will continue to drive the power of the consumer in customer service.
So a bit more about what Doc Searls says about the 'Intention Economy'. He states, "The Intention Economy grows buyers, not sellers. It leverages the simple fact that buyers are the first source of money, and that they come ready-made. You don't need advertising to make them."
However he argues businesses are still seller oriented. Searls describes the current condition as a series of silos. The only option a buyer has is merely moving from silo to silo.
Searls notes that some sites have similar characteristics of an Intention Economy. For example flight booking services Priceline.com, lets users name their price for an airline ticket although Searls argues this site still functions like a silo. In a true Intention Economy Searls suggests a site like Priceline might serve as an intermediary with the airline coordinating new flight dates and times that correspond around the buyers intentions.
Currently our research shows that consumers think the way businesses handle them as customers particularly around service issues or complaints is quite poor. The following data is a study of 500 Aussie consumers and their happiness rating on a scale of 0-100 for customer service provided by organisations they are customers of for the following interactions:
Service issue or complaint 53/100
Billing enquiry 62/100
Sale/Purchase 68/100
New Account opening 69/100
General Enquiry 72/100
Updating of information 77/100
Confirmation of information 81/100
This ranking clearly shows that businesses are ok at providing basic service interactions but very average at providing anything of greater value.
Service issue or complaint 53/100
Billing enquiry 62/100
Sale/Purchase 68/100
New Account opening 69/100
General Enquiry 72/100
Updating of information 77/100
Confirmation of information 81/100
This ranking clearly shows that businesses are ok at providing basic service interactions but very average at providing anything of greater value.
This must change and I will start writing more around this topic this year.
So interesting.
So interesting.
Comments
content and responses. Seems like people are quite often looking for someone to take a strong position with a sense of humour and self depracation - playing right into your strengths! It would be interesting to explore philanthropy concept within the contact
centre industry. I'm still getting glazed eyes if I talk about offshoring work as contributing to Australias millenium development goals for the empowerment of women. I saw an interesting idea in Typo the other day where they'd built into their pricing structure
the option to donate the 5c change from a (any dollar figure) and 95c item to support their orphanage. Is social responsibility getting a foothold?
is difficult to do. So micro donations or crowd funding are stunning ideas. C x