Often I listen to professional services business people talk from a position where they think they own and control their customer via some right assigned to them through their education, business or financial acumen.
Seriously, no-one owns the customer. I personally think it’s very disrespectful of the customer. At the end of the day the customer calls the shots via their wallet. Where this isn’t the case there is usually something else at play and it’s often more sinister, something I call intellectual deception. These behaviors are often legal and facilitated by the system and regulations for that industry. In law you see this all to often.
This TED talk by Philip Howard below actually hits on some of these issues (you need to read between the lines). I think Philip may be editing himself. It takes a brave person to do this talk and face off against his peers and industry. It’s not just in the area of Law that you see this. It’s observable in banking, accounting and financial planning.
In business we should have some control over the customer relationship but it must be earned and lay in a bed of respect. If you kill their problems, find ways to save them time and help them get what they want, then you are deserving of their trust. Then your grip will be firm. Quite often customers have faced intellectual deception and they end up “lawyer haters”. So they become careful with their trust. Then as a business you are only as good as your product, advice and possibly the most recent dealing you had with them.
For this very reason, I find businesspeople who say “X is stealing my customers” offensive. As your headline says, a business doesn’t “own” its customers. It earns them.
That’s a great post, Marc. I saw lotslot in professional services. Tyicalky the greatest cost in changing is in relationships, knowledge and data. Data can be addressed through standards, and informed customers can be vocal or insistent upon these. Others depend more on the relationships and perceptions of conflict for lock in.
Still others, as you point out, rely on legal means.
From my perspective, clients make their own decisions. They may or may not be fully informed, but that willingness and capacity to “let their money talk” is really key.
19 well spent minutes! thank you for this video!
One of your best posts ever Marc. A profoundly impactful video too. I hope Obama and Rudd get to watch it. Thanks.
@pete I think Obama may watch it but Rudd isn’t likely to. Obama is switched on. I heard he hired Tufte so he knows how to hire experts out of the commercial arena.
Thanks for very interesting and useful video!
Greay video that man seems to know what he is talking about I enjoyed watching the video. I agree respect is everything in business. If you earn your customers respect they will be repeat visitors, and they will give your business free word of mouth advertising which is great.
Nice post!
This is really one great post. It is really true that no one really owns the customer. The customer has the free choice of who he will be dealing with.
Great point Stilgherrian, i deal with these questions on a daily basis. Company X is taking our customers and what can we do to get them back.
In psychology, a fear-based person cannot achieve success/satisfaction. Same for entities. If our hands are tied, we cannot achieve great heights. Interesting video. I hope people heard him!