Being direct... AdVantage Dec 2003
Which does come first ...
The Chicken or the Egg ?
What really drives our perceptions: needs or wants; the rational or emotional; and can this
influence how we assess our experiences, as customers?
This morning's copy of The Mercury contained an item by local showbiz writer Terence Pillay, in which he highlighted an age-old 'problem' here in Durbs, the lack-of -support for the local theatre scene. What hit a nerve with me when reading it - was the apparent cause and effect relationship given as the key reason for this long-running puzzlement. Mr Pillay wrote: '…there are a dozen or so theatres dotted around Durban. And it's pointless bitching about lack of support, if they're not giving audiences what they want.'
Now, the issue of giving people what they want is (on the face of it) a simple enough principle, but those of us who have spent our entire lives in the world of marketing have come to appreciate that very often people don't quite 'know' what it is they want, and even if they did, actually 'wanting' what they want is also not the same as knowing what they want. Choosing to 'go after' what they want is yet another part of the human ritual called buying something (the world's original interactive process) - a practice that usually defies any kind of logic at all. (…and I am not even talking about the differences between the sexes here…!)
So, what does come first? Wanting or Knowing? Marketing 101 describes the first step in any process of marketing as 'identifying a segment with a need'. In order to do this, one should ideally know what any specific market segment's needs actually are. But as we all know, 'a need' may or may not be the same thing as 'a want'.
Mr Pillay's article correctly suggests that makers of theatre in Durban should swap their tiaras for hearing aids - ie be more aware. But, we all know that even if people tell you exactly what is that they think they want (in detail, and to five decimal places) this does not necessarily mean that should it be offered to them - they will actually buy it.
Is this perhaps an acknowledgement that potential customers have to be 'attracted' to that which they don't know they want, because somehow anything 'described' or 'promoted' can be made to have greater appeal than that which people may say they want? Is this perhaps the long-hidden real purpose of advertising and public relations? Is it why someone who may have a perfectly adequate means of cellular communication for example, virtually lusts after the newest (and inevitably smallest) offering from Nokia that (predictably) includes capability that he can't even spell, let alone understand, or God forbid - operate?
If emotional triggers (desire, excitement. sadness, lust, craving et al) drive our decision to want something, and these emotional triggers actually differ from person to person (by sex/time of day/incongruity etc) then it suggests that knowing 'what' somebody wants (in absolute terms) will still take a back seat to the real driver of any individual decision to purchase something: these weird and sometimes completely unique set of emotional triggers!
Something else fairly new arrived this morning - this time in my e-mailbox, and it has made me want to question this subject even further. The e-mail was headlined: 'why do 71 per cent of senior business leaders say 'Customer Experience' is the next competitive battleground?' and it describes a new-ish book called 'Building Great Customer Experiences' by Brits Colin Shaw and John Ivens.
I have yet to acquire a copy of the book and devour it with my usual passion - but from the little that I was able to glean from the website, it seems that Messrs Shaw and Ivens differentiate between rational customer expectations and emotional customer expectations (which one is the need? and which one the want?) and raise the issue of how important it is for businesses to understand that differences between them can shape the customer's overall perception of his/her experience.
I have talked before in this column about customer expectations that may be felt 'unreasonable' by some of us in the customer service chain, however customer feedback becomes easier to understand when one assesses it in the context of whether customers are being influenced by rational or emotional expectations.
For example, I have today had to respond to a customer who took us to task for making his shopping experience 'unpleasant' because he was asked to produce a membership card in order to make use of a reward voucher. Rationally, most would not normally question the need to confirm their identity at point of sale.
At an emotional level however, the reaction is fully understandable - we have often described customers as 'very important' to us - and this is absolutely true; but at an emotional level - some customers (no doubt) feel that we should somehow differentiate them (as important individuals) from merely 'everyone else'.
This is a fascinating subject for sure and cannot be covered in a mere 800 words. We'll continue. I would welcome any thoughts to rayj@thecustomer.co.za