Difference between revisions of "Michael's Projects"
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One approach to customer empowerment, advocated notably by [[Doc Searls]], is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_Relationship_Management Vendor Relationship Management] (VRM), which aims to equip customers to be independent leaders rather than captive followers in their relationships with vendors. But VRM focuses on increasing the customer's power with respect to the vendors, rather than looking at how the vendor or service provider relates to the customers. | One approach to customer empowerment, advocated notably by [[Doc Searls]], is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_Relationship_Management Vendor Relationship Management] (VRM), which aims to equip customers to be independent leaders rather than captive followers in their relationships with vendors. But VRM focuses on increasing the customer's power with respect to the vendors, rather than looking at how the vendor or service provider relates to the customers. | ||
| − | From the vendor's point of view, | + | From the vendor's point of view, commercial constraints always intervene to limit the amount of service on can offer customers. 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 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. | 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. | ||
