Business Basics & AI Disruptions
One of the questions in our webinar on Staying in Front of Your Customers in a Digital/AI Environment was if traditional business fundamentals remain relevant despite the rise of AI and digital transformation? Without question, the answer is YES. Proof? How do you relate to a robot? Humans relate to humans, always have, always will. And while you can formulate a “relationship” with AI, AI is just a tool. Its your relationship with your clients that matter most, and your clients are human after all!
Customer relationships matter most.
I can automate processes, but trust, human connection, and brand loyalty remain critical and really can’t be automated. So while you can use automation in the process, too much automation will break the relationship (how many times have you hung up the phone once you realized it’s a robot).. In other words, AI is good, but still no substitute for a human being. Take the last item: loyalty. What makes your clients loyal?
Loyalty means giving or showing “Firm, constant support or allegiance to a person or institution.” In marketing, many apply this term to “brands.” Therefore, if you are going to study loyalty, you should study tides as I did in my blog, What Makes a Shopper Loyal?. In that piece, I argued that, “Every encounter is an opportunity to ‘show your best.’ The more you train customer service representatives, sales associates, retailer sellers and so on, in dealing with consumers, the more you increase the commitment to loyalty that your customers may already feel for your brand.”
In fact, brands and loyalty go hand in hand, don’t they? But as Kevin Roberts, the Executive Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the top agencies in the world at the time, noted in his excellent paper about brand loyalty:
Take a brand away and people will find a replacement.
Take a Lovemark away and people will protest.
He coined the term “lovemark” which is actually love, period. Do people really love brands? Perhaps, but that human connection – people doing business with people they like – well, there’s no substitute. It’s the relationship after all.
Value-driven communication is timeless.
Businesses that clearly communicate their unique value will always stand out. Often, this is called the “mission” statement on a website. Have you looked at mission statements lately?
- we control the comfort of the air for people in homes and many of the world’s largest and most famous commercial, industrial and institutional building.
- we’ve led in inventing new technologies and entirely new industries and we continue to lead because we keep customers at the center of every product and service we offer and we act quickly to exceed their expectations.
- our core mission is to innovate, create and execute. Innovation is the lifeblood of our businesses — it drives new products, expansion into new product categories and improvement of our business processes.
- our holistic approach is to ensure Health, Vigor, and Happiness life through better service to lead the highest quality at an affordable price and expand in the local and global markets
- to provide comfort and sustainability through innovative heating, cooling, and water heating products.
These seem to cry “we we we” all the way home, don’t they? There’s a different between value added and adding value – a big difference. So the question isn’t what you are selling. The question is always what is the value you put around what you are selling? More importantly, does your customer perceive it? And, how DO you communicate your value to create the right perception?
All complex questions. But, as John Caslione put it in a wonderful paper, “Value-Added Strategies: How to Compete Against Price:” True Value-Added Strategy goes above and beyond the product level to create a true strategic relationship between the two companies. The product itself does not change, and in fact, it sometimes becomes almost incidental to the customer-supplier relationship.
How many “mission” statements reflect a strategic relationship?
Problem-solving is still the foundation.
No matter how technology evolves, companies that solve real problems will thrive. But the question is always one of focus. Where DO you focus to solve that problem? Where SHOULD you focus?
Data today give marketers’ judgments credibility and validity to go alongside their hunch and expertise. Do you “spray and pray” with your focus far and wide and hope you could capture some clues? Or do you use a laser beam?
There is the problem with a laser in marketing: it’s too precise. Think of a flashlight compared to a laser. If you have a small, highly centralized beam of light, you can ONLY see what you target. The laser doesn’t even light anything: it points. A flashlight throws a traditional beam, with the middle still brighter, but you also see what’s around the projection, so you don’t fall down when you walk. It points AND lights. The question for using your business data to solve your problem is, do you need a laser or a flashlight?
Having a laser focus is OK when required, but don’t think that data and data analysis will give you the keys to the problem. Using “lasers” to plow through customer data is missing the entire point. It’s not up to your company to judge relevance; it’s up to your customers. It’s not about lasers. It’s about knowing when to use the right light.
Bottom line: AI is a tool, not a replacement for strong business fundamentals like trust, service, and relationships.