Who's Your Customer?

Has the general business and commercial environment become more or less humane in the past years and decades? 

Whatever your thoughts about the current tenor of the marketplace, our language has certainly become nicer.  I remember being comforted when my first employer announced that it would be rightsizing its workforce.  No more heartless downsizings for them.  Of course employees are now associates or partners, and most job descriptions seem to have been upgraded, even if everything else has gotten worse for the poor employee/associate/partner.

So if you believe, as I do, that the reality for workers and consumers has coarsened while our labels have gotten nicer, you might wonder to what extent these phenomena are related.

I was therefore heartened to see a recent announcement by the FAA (as reported in the Wall Street Journal) that they would no longer call airlines, the entities they are chartered to regulate, customers.  Apparently someone there realized that feel-good labels can get in the way of getting the job done right.

Terminology matters, and choices that feel good sometimes obscure the truth.

We've found that sometimes it is valuable to be use more precise terms with our clients to highlight the reality of their customer relationships.  For instance, not all buyers are really customers.  They may have a hit-and-run relationship with you, and you'll never see them again.  Remember, a customer is someone who gives you their custom, or their business patronage.  Treat your buyers well, certainly, but if you can determine from the data what kind of relationship you have, it is worthwhile to make the distinction.

Another example is the difference between retention and loyalty.  Loyalty, as in the virtue of providing mutual support and faithfulness over time, is clearly not the same as retention.  Measuring retention is straightforward, but labeling it loyalty is not always straight-shooting.  Is loyalty really what you have?  Is it really what you want?

At certain times and places, unvarnished language can lend clarity to the reality of the situation.  So the next time you start using the nice words to describe your customer relationships, take a few minutes to consider whether the language is helping or hindering your seeing the situation clearly.