Customer Power

“Choice” is the hot word these days in marketing circles. But unlike a lot of edgy, cool, hot, hip, trendy words that come and go, the power of this word “choice” describes the omnipotence of the customer, “now and forever” (and I am aware that “Cats” did finally close).

Now (and forever), the customer commands the power of almost infinite choices. This true power has been a long time coming, but finally, now, it's absolute. The customer can now buy anything anywhere at anytime. The customer can open your store (click), and close it (click). Customers now choose everything. They shop Costco, Bergdorf Goodman, a small independent specialty shop and Amazon.com, all in the same day.

We now have 485 choices of dry cereal in the average grocery store. People on cell phones call home for help in making choices. (“I'm in the produce department… I'll call you when I get to cereal…”)

The customer is now your ceo. She chooses everything: location, hours, store design, available information, how, when and where – individually, and instantly. No waiting. No lines. And the clerk in the store who is filing her nails and yawning is now exact, direct competition with the service provided online.

The customer/ceo has a powerful tool that never existed before. It is the “delete” key. When the lady in the store yawns in your face, you're still there. When you don't like what's on your personal screen, you hit “delete” and the lady vanishes. Hit “delete” and the whole store disappears. Snap! – the bank is gone; snap! – no more car salesman; snap! – it's faster and easier than walking out the door. And it's fun because it's powerful.

Customers are liking this power a lot. Virtual service has been preferred by customers ever since the invention of the Automatic Teller Machine. The customer takes control of the transaction, not the other way around. The customer is king.

The question facing us is: Do WE get it? Are we, the marketers of habit, willing and able to completely change to this customer-centric universe? Do we know it, face it, admit it, and will we undergo the radical surgery necessary to act it out? And do it fast enough to keep those customers we have and gain new ones? It's that basic.

Companies have claimed to be customer-centric for years. Like a lot of trendy notions, most of it is lip service. In reality, companies are stockholder-centric and management-centric, which helps explain the hideous decline in service we now endure. Service costs money. Or, to put it another way, it costs money to offer service. So cut it. That's bottom-line-centric, which is, of course, the main purpose of any company – to make money.

But after “the bottom line,” what's the next priority? (Hint: The customer is king!)

Here's where the customer SHOULD take over.

Your company may not truthfully make the customer king – but the customer knows the truth – so now it's up to us to catch up with the customer!

We'll never go backwards from here, back to stores that tell the customer how, when and what to buy. Now the customer chooses how, when and what, plus where and if. It's a looking glass world: Everything's reversed. Customer-centric has outlived its faddish nomenclature to become a fact. This is the way, the only way, to do business today. Deal with it. We certainly have a clear vision ahead: The customer is ceo, king, czar, sole hope, single objective, highest aim, only opportunity, heart's desire. “Give the lady what she wants,” said Marshall Field a long time ago. Total service, total customer-centricity: It's our only choice. Sam Walton said it then, Jeff Bezos says it now. Say it. From now on, it's either follow the customer or follow the “exit” signs.

“Today's AARP” is a $100 million campaign launching a new magazine focusing on people over 50 – our greatest potential market, urgent, untapped and imminent. “Today's AARP. Your choice. Your voice. Your attitude.” Each ad features a 50 person with the banner: “Be yourself” – “Rosemary MacCallum doesn't make compromises. She makes choices. She chooses to climb mountains. She chooses to embrace the outdoors, and tackle any challenge.”

More power to the customer: It's “Customer's Choice.”

And so we are finally acknowledging the moral of the old fairy tale: “The Customer is King!” If there's anything the customer doesn't like about the experience, there is always another choice.

Snap! You're open. Snap! You're gone. Snap! It's easier than walking out. Snap! The Customer is King!

P.S. Target gets it right once again. Here's its new TV campaign slogan: “Good design: It's there for everybody.”

Peter's current activities include presentations to the Cloverdale Lions Club, the Del Monte Center in Monterey and the North Bay Tech Center Business Roundtable. A videotape of Peter's inspiring keynote address to R.A.C. 2001, entitled ” 'A'Is for Attitude,” can be ordered from the Retail Advertising & Marketing Association (RAMA). Phone: 312-251-7262; fax 312-251-7269; Internet: www.ramarac.org. Comments? Contact Peter by e-mail at: jasminehill@thegrid.net. Hear him at the 2001 International Retail Design Conference, October 28 – 31 in Orlando.