Dr. Serhan Ili shared these thoughts about customer service on LinkedIn the other day. I found it to be pretty accurate (although a little simplistic, as everything is more complicated than a bullet-pointed list would suggest). He wrote:
- Amazon didn’t kill the retail industry. They did it to themselves w/bad customer service.
- Netflix did not kill Blockbuster. They did it to themselves w/ridiculous late fees.
- Uber did not kill the taxi business. They did it to themselves by limiting # of taxis & w/fare control.
- Apple did not kill the music industry. They did it to themselves by forcing people to buy the full album.
- AirBnb did not kill the hotel industry. They did it to themselves by limited availability & pricing options.
- Technology by itself is not the real disrupter.
- Being non-customer centric is the biggest threat to any business.
The technology changed and these businesses didn’t think of their customers the way the startups did, and well, they were left in the dust. It reminded me of a conversation I had with Greg Collins, the Chief Customer Officer at SalesLoft. Greg and I chatted a lot about customer service and how important it was in today’s economy.
To keep reading, click here: Disruption? Is it Technology or Customer Service?
I’d point out that with Amazon, at least, it was also customer service in traditional sense as well. Easy returns, quick resolutions to problems etc. Much more so than a lot of other companies. That really helped people make the shift to buying on line.
They do generally have great customer service. Easy returns are something I look for in an online company. I order almost all my clothes online from a company called Zalando precisely because they do free shipping and returns. They aren’t the cheapest, but their customer service is awesome.
Amazon didn’t invent mail order. In fact, mail order is centuries old. Amazon just figured out how to make it preferable to the immediate satisfaction of driving to a store and buying something.
Exactly. And a key to that success was their great customer service.
For me, online ordering means not having to go to the store, where there will be rude shoppers, bored looking cashiers and a mile walk because it’s a big superstore and I need something from both ends of the store.
It’s so much better to order it from my couch and have it show up in 2 days.
Also, not having to wait to return an item because there is only one cashier and 20 people in line is awesome.
But video did kill the radio star. There can be no dispute about that.
This is 100 percent true!
Great article with that reference to Dr Sehran lll. Too few of companies in retail really look at customer viewpoints except to how much customers spend and only blame the employees for not handling the customers properly without looking at whole picture.
Uber doesn’t have the best track record as far as employees go…I don’t have an issue with creative disruption per se, but the gig economy is going to be really tough for a lot of individual employees turned contractors. We’ll probably settle on a new normal at some point, but for people (employees, contractors, or whatever version) having money to live on and time off are both important.
A large company in my area has a huge perma-temp workforce. Which is really tough on the people in that workforce and (in my view!) not a good look for the company.