Question: What do all of these these terms have in common? Airline Passenger, Medical Patient, Caller, Taxi Fare, Metro Rider, Restaurant Guest, Bank Patron….
Answer: You can substitute the word “Customer” for each noun printed in color.Companies try to make customers feel special by using these names. Instead, these euphemisms allow companies to step further away from us. By stepping away from the concept of a customer, they step away from the concept of service. We are no longer special. We do not deserve courteous one-on-one treatment. We become part of an unruly group to be managed.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the names that organizations use to address customers. We used to all be customers. Now if you phone a toll-free number, you are a caller in a virtual line. If you try to negotiate with an airline, you are a passenger. The doctor’s office calls those of us in the waiting room “patients”. And on it goes. It’s been my experience that medical personnel never call anyone a ‘customer’. I guess that’s because they see us as an insurance number. Plus, do doctors really want to get too close to their customers? I don’t think so. Who wants to hang out with sick people?
What I’ve noticed about these identifiers is how differently we are treated when we are no longer called ‘customers’. In each of the terms listed above, we are individually and together customers in each scenario. When you book a ticket and board a plane, you are not just a passenger. You are a customer of that airline. And, for many of us, we are loyal customers if we have frequent flier mileage on a specific airline. After all, we want the points that buy “free” trips.
When you visit the doctor, you are that physician’s customer. You choose that physician, and you stay with him as long as your insurance program lets you.
When you walk into the bank, you’re the customer – and the owner of the money that institution holds for you.
Interestingly, companies try to make customers feel special by using these names. Instead, these euphemisms allow companies to step further away from us. They distance themselves in the way they have to treat us. Instead of seeing us as an individual with purchasing power -- and choices about where our purchases are made – they see us as a group. By stepping away from the concept of a customer, they step away from the concept of service. We are no longer special. We do not deserve courteous one-on-one treatment. We become part of an unruly group to be managed.
To illustrate what I mean, here are some one-sided conversations that I’ve been part of.
Doctor to Patient: “Patients shouldn’t be on the internet. They should just listen to their doctor.” (A doctor told me this. Really. I had mentioned a treatment I found on a website and thought my doctor might be interested. Wrong. After all, I’m a patient. Not a customer who might not want the treatment du jour being offered.)
Flight Attendant to Passengers: “Passengers have been TOLD not to stand up in the aisle or attempt to use the forward cabin lavatory until the Captain is finished in there and has returned to the cockpit.” Everyone waited with baited breath until he finished, hoping that (a) the auto-pilot was working; (b) the co-pilot was awake; and (c) that the captain had eaten something different from the meal we were given.
Caller: “Your call will be answered in the order it was received. Expect a waiting time of 3 – 10 minutes.”
Fare: “Do you want to get into the City (NY) the fast way or the long way?” (Never choose the 'fast way".)
Re-Thinking Your RoleWhen we realize that we are customers, our role in a situation changes. It’s subtle, but what I’ve found is that we realize that we have more rights. We deserve better treatment. And by reminding someone that we are their ‘customer’, I’ve seen people actually change their style of communication. The result is that customers have more control over what happens to them. We have more control over decisions that are made for us. And we have more control over the level of service that we will be given.
Along with the replacement names for ‘customer’, we should remember three more: “Voter”, “constituent”, and “taxpayer”. By removing these euphemisms we can insert the word ‘boss’. Government isn’t a we-them proposition. Government officials are elected by the people, and they work for the people. As the boss of government workers, we have the right to fire them in the next election. If we make the effort to vote.
Customers are Cads.While it is true that we are each a customer, as working professionals we are also on the side of the company provider. We just don’t get to be the person demanding service. We also have to give service. Sometimes it’s difficult because some customers are absolute cads, beasts, and blighters. But they are still customers.
An old marketing axiom identifies the selling process in terms of where the potential customer is on the sales ladder. A “Target” is someone who fits the profile of a potential customer, but who is completely unknown to the company. This is one reason you get direct mail from a company you may never have done business with. The goal is to turn that Target into a “Prospect”. The Prospect has a profile that has been reviewed and looks promising. The “Lead” is someone who has shown interest in a company. Success here converts the Lead to a “Customer”. But customers can purchase once and walk away. If the Customer keeps returning for more purchases, and you can nurture the relationship, you’ve got a “Client”.
The most successful companies have clients. But this is best done when understanding that every client is in name and personality a ‘customer’. And that name games are simply that.
-Barbara Kalkis, Maestro Marketing & PR (sm)
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