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Information to help your business benefit from telecommunications
“Welcome to the Future”…or is it “You’re Welcome to the Future”?
Posted on Aug 21, 2020
One of the things we’ve talked about almost ad nauseam in these blogs has been the need
for every business to recognise that humans are by nature relational and that those
businesses that succeed best are those that are able to reach out to their customers in such
a way that they, the customers, somehow feel included, thought about and cared for. In this
respect you might like to think of the slavish belonging that some feel for the football club
they support. How would you like all your customers to wear your logo on their shirts every
day?
Perhaps it’s a little unfair to use a football club as a model example, but if it is, it’s only a
little; would you be prepared to accept a virtual wager that you can think of at least three
brands that you’re unquestionably loyal to? A friend who would claim to be totally rational
in all his purchases has had an MG in his garage since he was 20, always wears Rohan
clothing and has everything Apple…how rational is that?
Creating brand loyalty is both an art and a science. Two key elements are these: total
commitment and self-belief by the business and those representing it, and absolute
authenticity, which is, in itself, the single most important asset a business leader and, inter
alia, his/her business, can have.
Why mention all this? Well it’s down to relationship again. Authenticity is key to a
successful, trusting and therefore mutually honouring relationship. Our customers have to
be able to share our self-belief and make it their own. In football terms, they want to see
their players being totally committed.
What’s fascinating is how this will play out post-Covid. We’ve seen how lock-down has taken
our already growing propensity to avoid personal contact and live on line, given it credence,
a stamp of approval and legitimise it so that on-line is now the accepted norm. We’ve seen
how so many office type businesses have discovered the benefits of home-working. We’ve
discovered the practical benefits and challenges posed by Zoom and Skype. What we
haven’t discovered is how our needs for relationship, authenticity and trust are going to be
met in the longer term.
A clue may be found in some of the programmes we watch on TV. What would it be like, for
instance, to have an entire wall of our home office converted to a giant screen, with all
working hours having a two way view and sound with those we would “normally” have
shared an office with? Would that be more relational than a laptop screen? How about
holograms? Apparently some companies use these for individual meetings already; would a
virtual presence enable the same relationship to grow as the real thing?
The answer is…who knows?! There’ll soon be over 1000 communication satellites up there
(there’s roughly 250 at the moment), we’ll have full internet access any and everywhere, 5
and 6G will enable us to transfer data quicker than we can think it, AI will given immediate
answers to questions we’re still thinking about. It’s all very exciting…but is it any better?