"Subscribers" or "Customers"?
I was recently talking
to the CEO of a mobile communications company when he made an interesting
observation about how one of his competitors described those who used their
services. The competitor referred to
them as “subscribers” whilst the company with whose CEO I was speaking
described his users as “Customers”.
A small difference, but it got me thinking: do the words we
use to describe those who use our product or service reflect how we see them? Do they affect our employees’ performance or
attitude on a subconscious level?
In the UK, Southwest Trains now refers to “customers”, not
“passengers”. How many other examples
can you think of where a company you’ve known for a long time changes the way
it describes the people who buy its product or service?
One of my pet peeves is “Human Resources”, the word used to
describe those who work for an organisation as well as the function responsible
for their general well-being. It came in
during the late 80s and has stuck ever since, although some organisations now
describe their employees as “partners” or in other terms that illustrate either
their attitude of what those employees are or what they would like them to
aspire to think of themselves. In a recent
post I mentioned Sir Richard Branson’s attitude to looking after his people
as this led to them looking after customers as a result. If someone feels valued, they’ll go the extra
mile and it shows in the service.
The power of words is unappreciated, and yet we use them
every day to encourage people to achieve things, support a project or vote in a
certain way. The basic underlying
emotional appeal of a word is what drives actions.
Do our words reflect the attitude we want to show to
others? If not, maybe it’s time to
change.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Selling, Strategy
posted by William Martin @ 08:25
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