How Business Will Change In the Future: Are You Prepared?
by Hannah Jones
Personal Assistant & Marketing Coordinator
The Customer Experience Advantage
In my work with David Avrin, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow, we often focus on the tangible, specific changes that businesses need to make in a post-pandemic world to avoid getting left behind by the competition. This is in part because the marketplace of business leadership is littered with motivational messengers who focus on abstract aspirations and feel-good messaging to little effect. What sets David apart is his commitment to delivering presentations that are meaningful, impactful, actionable and profitable.
And you can find those specific, timely thoughts in our other blog posts, and in his books as well as the Morning Huddle Membership. However, today we wanted to take the opportunity to zoom out and talk about the future in broader terms. How has the business landscape changed over the years, and how will it continue to change? And what does that mean for your business? How do we take the abstract lessons of history and turn them into a strategy to remain competitive in this decade and the next?
How has business changed over the years?
"In yesteryear, it was often said that a man’s handshake was as good as a contract; that his word was his bond. (Pardon the gender-specific reference, but that’s how it was said.) A promise was as “good-as-gold.”
Integrity was the foundation of relationships, both personal and professional. They didn’t file lawsuits in the old west. They pulled out their gun. You didn’t dare steal a horse, lest you be branded a “no-good, dirty horse thief,” and that was to be a social outcast. And if you cheated in a card game, it was perfectly reasonable to be shot dead for the infraction. It wasn’t about the cards. It was about being cheated and lied to. It was an unwritten, but widely understood code and an honorable man didn’t do it, or put up with it."
David Avrin - Why Customers Leave (And How to Win Them Back)
Welcome to the age of the scammer. Between phishing schemes targeting your phone lines and email, major startups being revealed to be fake, and watching it all unfold in major media sources that we have record low trust in, we are more aware of the present dangers of scams than ever. We are, paradoxically, savvier to their tells than ever before, and more afraid of their growing sophistication. We think to ourselves "I am a smart person capable of making good consumer choices," and also "the tools that some businesses have used to lie to us in the past are more powerful than my tools of research and common sense."
"There are those who say that the truth is a “tricky thing.” If you ask a shady accountant what 2 + 2 is, they might ask: “What do you want it to be?” But here is the truth: It’s not a tricky thing. It’s either the truth, or it is a lie. In business, grey is a dangerous color. Beyond the philosophical discussion, is a tangible truth: If you lie to us, even once, we are gone. We will never trust you again — nor should we.
There are no “white lies” in business. In our personal relationships, perhaps. We can save someone’s feelings as to why were unable (unwilling) to make it to their baby shower. You can tell a friend that her butt looks fine in those jeans and we can lavish praise on the painful-to-watch, 4th grade school play, telling your 10 year-old that it was: “The best show I have ever seen!”
In business however, anything less than the truth shakes our confidence and makes us wary of anything you tell us afterward. To be clear, you can spare someone’s embarrassment when denying them a job or a save a vendor relationship by simply saying that “We are going in a different direction on this project,” but that’s simply being tactful. That’s showing sensitivity and merely omitting additional facts that might cause distress or hurt feelings. Being less than truthful for substantive matters is different situation entirely."
David Avrin - Why Customers Leave (And How to Win Them Back)
So, here's the bright side (there always is one). Your customers are smart. Your customers are good at discerning bad treatment and they don't accept it for long. There has never been a better time to be a business that prioritizes integrity, compassion, and trustworthiness, because your customers will reward you with their loyalty. But there has never been a worse time to rely on the naive assumption that your customers will know or care about your integrity just because you have it.
How business will change in the future
"When your CEO goes on camera after yet another PR blunder claiming, “This is not who we are,” we roll our eyes. It IS who you are. That’s why you keep having to go on TV and make excuses. We don’t trust your spin. We have become cynical consumers, and for good reason.
“I’m calling to check on the payment for the January order. We talked early last week and you told me that the payment would go out last Friday.”
“Yeah. Sorry about that. The check-run got held up because our bookkeeper was out. It’ll be on next week’s check run. So sorry for the miscommunication.”
Sound familiar?
“Any word on the flight to Detroit?” we ask the gate agent. The sign said “delayed 20 minutes,” but now it says an hour? Do you know what we should expect?”
“We were having mechanical issues with that plane.”
“The other gate agent said it was weather on the east coast.” C’mon! Get your stories straight”
When you say you love your loyal “premier” customers, yet make it increasingly harder each year for them to use the “perks” that they’ve earned, they feel mislead.
When you tell us that “Your call is very important to us,” but you keep us on hold for 45 minutes, we know it’s just talk."
David Avrin - Why Customers Leave (And How to Win Them Back)
In today's business climate, don't rely on smart messaging and misleading marketing. Show your customers that you will treat them right with the very DNA of your business. And when you get it wrong, have a real person (not a chat bot) own up to it and let us know how you plan to make it right.
Sometimes, the most forward-thinking business practices will feel the most old-fashioned. Because, in a climate where companies are increasingly sacrificing their values to maximize profits, your customers will notice the time and effort it takes to do business a different way.