by Georges Panayotis
Tensions are rising between consumers and some economic corporations that have not understood that the world is constantly changing. While some businesses should be questioning themselves, their outright resistance is bound to fail and drive deeper misunderstandings from both sides. Not that long ago, all activities involving contact with customers were looking to enhance the perceived value of their services, processes and products. They involved their staff in thinking through quality management brainstorming sessions, expert panels, surveys and focus group interviews.
This approach had the merit to evaluate customer expectations, their reactions to companies’ proposals and what needed to be improved to avoid falling behind. But within a few years, economic development changed from a continuous transformation of existing business models to dynamics of brutal disruptions, even sometimes a violently felt chaos in badly prepared trades.
While it is not panic on board, it is noteworthy that corporate leaders are now willing to sacrifice whole areas of their businesses, when they feel these are endangered by the arrival of a new collaborative model or the rise of new digital players. With such turnarounds, they throw the baby out with the water, even if that baby is about to grow and needs to be accompanied in his growth. The arrival of a new economy, based on digital tools, data circulation, universal connectivity and virtual relationship… does not call into question the fundamentals of a service-based economy that has not said its last word, even though entrepreneurs have gradually transformed into financial strategists and today essentially into communication people, shifting away from their core businesses.
The servuction system, the customer relationship, the quality of service, the professional abilities are strong enough assets to give them the ways and means to express themselves. Everything is about team management, a fairly well-known practice in hotels which have the chance to rely on both a long tradition and solid training. It is true that the added value takes longer to build than through rising commissions, new fees, or through the realization of capital gains from asset disposals, but it is cumulative over time. It definitely motivates more the staffs involved than a “cash academy” selling its family jewels.
As often when a sector is disrupted by a new environment, it is useful to go back to fundamentals. Customers want to be listened to, that we anticipate their expectations and surprise them. They are less and less receptive to advertising messages that sometimes look like propaganda and are shifting away from sincere communication. The collaborative economy has reignited a desire for direct democracy, ethics and clear proposals with good quality for price. Today taxis are paying the price, but they won’t be the only ones.
Without taking these dynamics into account, tensions will not subside. We cannot be happy with hypothetical barriers that try to lock down the market before tackling the actual issues. The revenge of the consumer citizen can take many forms and the backlash will be painful for those who remain attached to their beliefs. Communication cannot be the only solution, especially if the work on the product concept is not delivered. New players will be happy to fill the gap and satisfy novelty desires, without the constraint to change a network that has delayed its investments for too long. The hotel industry must not sink into pessimism or fatalism… a painful slope that led the Titan Cronos to deprive himself from his descendants by eating his own children.
