people buy people

In a world obsessed by technology, will development tools mean we become surplus to our own existence? We strive so far in business that the need for an element of human touch is no longer required. In some industries we are already seeing effective use of B2C shopping web sites and trading on line.  Even in these glorified cases what happens when it does not all go according to plan and the customer needs to deal with returns, complaints, wrong orders, warranty claims etc? Can we live in a world without a living breathing contact centre people? The answer is clear - NO!

Technology is a great enabler, however live interaction is still required in situations where technology is not sophisticated enough to deal with it. It is also required when the response needs careful judgment or specific skill need to be applied to the situation. We can be smart about the way we use technology or we can just implement it without consideration for our customers. If you have incorporate the Internet or other technologies into your customer touch points then make sure that you give customers a choice and always offer a brand aware person for those who want the live touch! 

“I don’t think that technology will replace the live person, at least not in our lifetime. It has taken us thousands of years to learn how to interact and communicate with each other and this new technology is just forcing us to rethink how we interact with it. People buy from people and in many cases the real value to customers is in the one to one personal contact. This is nothing new; we have seen many changes in the way we do business however we still have one constant - people. Therefore, I don’t think the Internet will replace live people; this technology will simply help people to do a much better job and to improve their quality of life. For example, people can improve their skills and build better relationships with customers by becoming more sophisticated in the approach to understanding what customers want.  People can also make reference to larger amounts of information over the web hence even reducing some contact times.
 
The massive growth in companies adapting to a more customer focused approach through customer services and ultimately building customer relationships will continue to fuel the growth of people buying people. Their importance within a company’s channel strategy is clear and is hear to stay.  As the way we tackle our personal and work functions with the rise in the internet changes, so will the communication channel between us as individuals and those who are customer facing.  Organisations need to better integrate their on-line brand with the networking and presentation skills and brand delivery of it customer-facing people.

The arrival of the Internet as a communication channel for both business and consumers was seen, in the early days, as a considerable threat to the continued growth of customer facing people.  Many “in the know” predicted a reduction in the number of relationship managers; contact centre people and retail outlets and some were even talking about an end for people to people selling.  People buy people and yes many functions are done on the Internet however many people require the real-time of human interaction.  However, whilst there has been change this seems to have been in customer sophistication and the need for people to be better communicators and top performers than ever before. Now most experts believe that the Internet’s impact will be to change and develop the role people function and they must now compete against the speed of service excellence delivered by technology.
 
I would not like to think that technology will replace people however, it challenge us to improve our own forms of communications. Technology is being developed to further enhance the role of customer facing people, by allowing them to multi task or specialise in using the telephone or the Internet to interact with customers.  If anything the expansion of technology will make our people more skilled and more productive in the workplaces.  People specialist should never fear technology but embrace it for the powerful tools that it offers.  Technology is just another way for us to communicate with our customers; hence it needs to be incorporated properly in the marketing and communication strategies of the organisation.  It is imperative that we do not look the other way when it comes to technology or when it comes to our people.