It is not about the conversation
In numerous posts and publications we read about this need that companies engage in the conversation with their customers. Lots of good things will happen then. We don’t think that this is so. It does not harm, but it is not needed. In general, apart from a desire to fulfil some kind of narcissistic need, customers are not interested in the “conversation” or the “relationship” with their sellers/suppliers. In most cases, especially in the context of large organisations that sell commodity products and services, it simply is rather pointless. So, many of the discourses that talk about customer centricity, customer focus, conversation management, social CRM, etc. often focus on the wrong constructs and processes. Too often, they focus on building some form of “human” relationship between the company and the customer, but in reality, there is no need to. In reality, it isn’t about centricity or focus or conversations, but simply about trust. Companies have to act in a way that we trust them to step in to become a customer, and that we can trust them that once we are a customer their products and services will indeed be as promised, and that in the unavoidable situation where they will not be able to deliver as expected, that we can trust them that they will take care of this in an appropriate way. Whether any or all of this is done in a transactional or a conversational way is completely irrelevant.