“Consumers are statistics. Customers are people." (Stanley Marcus)

We often write about research feedback and how the consumer is changing. It is a period of time which is evidencing great change in the most subtle of ways.

However, at the same time, the research is also noting that little is proving more effective and important than genuine old fashioned service; the personal touch which makes another person feel valued and important. It is arguably what makes hospitality stand out from others. As quite a number of articles have noted; personalised service will always be more effective than personalised marketing. In fact, a US survey in 2020, 79% of respondents noted this very point.

It is natural. A personalised service talks to each customer and guest. Marketing is too broad brush. It was Jeff Bezos who noted: “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”

The question therefore for all businesses is; are we offering a strong service level to our guests, employees and visitors?

The customer today, and the employee too, wants something which is genuine, authentic and bespoke. It is not hard to notice how so many automated services are today adapting to create a more personal experiences for each customer to good effect and feedback.

Feedback from employees across many companies is that they would like to see stronger welcomes and support processes in place which value them.

For many businesses, the employees spend their day in front of computers. It is interesting to note that daily conversation levels are forecast to have fallen by over 40% on a daily basis in the last twenty years. The average executive today will send 3 hours an day answering emails and a further 3 hours a day in either internal live meetings or on VC calls. This is all a natural part of how technology has changed the working day but the average person still yearns to meet and social interact just as before.

The working day is changing in all kinds of way but, for business, it is more important than ever to provide a moment of care to each customer as that is what they yearn for, almost more than the outcome of their query, question or interaction.

In fact technology has made it easier than ever to free up time for others, so there is little excuse of reason not to see service levels improve.

For consideration:

• 68% of consumers say they are willing to pay more for products and services from a brand known to offer good customer service experiences
• For 86%, good customer service turns one-time clients into long-term brand champions
• If the company’s customer service is excellent, 78% of consumers will do business with them again after a mistake
• Investing in new customers is between 5 and 25 times more expensive than retaining existing ones
• The customer experience management market worldwide is worth as much as $7.6 billion in 2020. This is a 16.9% year-over-year increase from its value of $6.5 billion in 2019