BrandsAmongMany

The evolution of digital technology has created expectations in consumers that brands simply don’t live up to.

This has been a defining principle in my thought process as I’ve grown into the digital realm. In fact, we’ve spent hours discussing just this thought around the tables of POKE. What is the difference between marketing of the days of yore and communication in today’s connected world? I’m gonna go out on a limb and start with…expectation.

We’re used to getting what we want, and getting it NOW. We’re used to being connected to the process the entire way through (straight down to the automated, geographic tracking on the package as it makes its way from Des Moines to Timbuktu). We’re used to picking up the phone and sifting through twelve automated menus and three Indian call centers to find out that we dialed the wrong customer service number.

So, what do we expect these days? Well, as this post bounced around my drafts folder, Tom managed to put it into words quite nicely over at Made With Computers:

We want more.

More information, services, ideas, more of each other and more value from you, the brand we grace with our attention. We also want to manage our relationships with your company, and to have_among other things_ instantaneous transactional capabilities. These expectations are increasing, not going away. To matters worse…

We also want less.

Less emails, less hold times, less crap snail mail and really - less interaction with you. That is of course, unless we want more interaction with you. Then, you know, give us that too.

And, as Tom goes on to point out, the line in the sand (read: trench, canyon, black hole…) between the brands that seem to get this and those that do not is almost unfathomable.

Of course, the benefit to this is that it doesn’t take much to impress me as a consumer anymore. All you have to do is overturn a few of those expectation - preferably in a positive way. Have a human answer the phone. Give me a correct answer to a question when I call to ask (are you listening Bank of America??). Make information easily accessible - AND CORRECT - on your website; believe it or not, I’m willing to spend the time looking for it on your website just so I DON’T have to call you (because I don’t trust your humans anymore).

Ladies and gentleman, the world is changing. Those of you who decide to keep up - or (gasp) rush ahead with us - will flourish. The rest of you…we’re getting tired of your ways. The backlash has already begun. Don’t let it hit you in the ass on your way out.