Difference between revisions of "Michael's Projects"
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I'm [[User:Michael|Michael Slattery]]. Below is a brief description of some of the projects I've been working on - or would like to work on. | I'm [[User:Michael|Michael Slattery]]. Below is a brief description of some of the projects I've been working on - or would like to work on. | ||
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From the vendor's point of view, the logic of commerce always intervenes to limit customer service. For example, after-sales service is a cost which companies inevitably seek to reduce. Thus telephone assistance is often a paying service, or is delocalized to overseas [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_center call centers], or is replaced by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IVR Interactive Voice Response] (IVR). How can we imagine a limitless improvement in customer service in the face of real-life economic constraints? We have to go outside of the box of commercial logic with the help of an abstract concept, an ideal, which I call "Total Customer Service." | From the vendor's point of view, the logic of commerce always intervenes to limit customer service. For example, after-sales service is a cost which companies inevitably seek to reduce. Thus telephone assistance is often a paying service, or is delocalized to overseas [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_center call centers], or is replaced by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IVR Interactive Voice Response] (IVR). How can we imagine a limitless improvement in customer service in the face of real-life economic constraints? We have to go outside of the box of commercial logic with the help of an abstract concept, an ideal, which I call "Total Customer Service." | ||
| − | The ideal of unlimited customer service is inherent in the marketing of a Convivial Tool. To design a household appliance that its owner can easily repair, you must also design the after-sales cycle: long-term availability of spare parts, usable documentation, online assistance and so on. The better and more complete such a design, the closer one gets to Total Customer Service. But this approach tends to conflict with the commercial interests of the vendor: as the effective life appliances increases, the sale of new models declines, and as customers become | + | The ideal of unlimited customer service is inherent in the marketing of a Convivial Tool. To design a household appliance that its owner can easily repair, you must also design the after-sales cycle: long-term availability of spare parts, usable documentation, online assistance and so on. The better and more complete such a design, the closer one gets to Total Customer Service. But this approach tends to conflict with the commercial interests of the vendor: as the effective life of appliances increases, the sale of new models declines, and as customers become able to repair everything themselves, the need for paying maintenance services disappears. In the long run you might even help the consumer to make his own tool, thus cutting the vendor entirely out the process. |
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| + | The Convivial Tool or Service seeks to make the user autonomous, while traditional marketing seeks to make the user dependent. One way to resolve this conflict would be to organise the vendor as a consumer's cooperative (see above), in which case the vendor becomes dependent on the consumers. But another approach would be to develop rational marketing strategies based on pushing customer service to its limits. | ||
(to be continued...) | (to be continued...) | ||
