The thing about Doc Searls at times is that he doesn’t make sense. Re-read this:
How can one possibly be wont of ‘un-acquiredness’ and yet be termed a ‘customer’? Correct is he when he asserts the desire of un-tamingness on behalf of Consumers. But that’s that! A consumer today wants the choicest of attention, best of services & products minus the strings of loyalty and obligations attached. And begets it.
He then shall swerve at the slightest discontent and shall expend heartily if content. Therefore today’s consumer is a perennial consumer and not a customer.
Point: Strike ‘customer’ from the trite-list if you may. But Consumer is the word of today and the future. Customer-holding days are bygone. Strategy resting on customer-loyalty is hee-haw.
Oft the difference between 'consumer-acquisition' and 'customer-retention' is the banality of promises that are rendered during prospecting that one doesn't keep.
The shift from customerization to consumerization shall keep the companies on their toes as: one, they need to make promises they can keep and two,they shall cease to have "customers" whose loyalty they can take for granted.

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