RISKsa March edition is out. Here's my article. Right click and select 'open link in new window' if you want to print this out. Text version below the visual if you'd prefer to read it that way. 
Loser in the comms race
I still run across businessmen (I’ve never heard a businesswoman make the claim) who proudly announce that they can’t use computers and that they dictate their e-mail. That’s simply pathetic. In five years time, if you’re not reasonably tech-literate, you won’t be able to operate your banking card.
This year sees the large-scale commercial introduction of so-called ‘smart cards’ for banking. They operate on the same principle as the SIM card in your mobile phone. That little gold-coloured fella is a micro-processor. Whilst not foolproof, it’s not going to be quite as easy to skim or otherwise extract information from your card. But given time, the criminals will undoubtedly get up to speed and we’ll be driven to yet another level of security.
As technology becomes ever more pervasive in the work and business place, we have to take care that our older or lower-tech type customers aren’t alienated because of the technology. A day before writing this article I called in at Old Mutual’s client service centre in Sandton. I was asked by the receptionist for my full name and ID number. I assumed it was for security purposes. In fact, she was entering it into an automated customer service system. I sat in reception and as soon as a consultant became available, the LED board readout indicated ‘C. Simpkins, cubicle 8’. I dutifully went off to cubicle 8 and got helped. It would have been even nicer if the sign had read, ‘Welcome Mr. Simpkins, please go to cubicle 8’. But maybe Old Mutual will get there.
Just by the by, the helpful assistant didn’t introduce herself, wear a name badge, or have a sign with her name on the desk. I played it in observation mode, until she wrote her name on a document and then I used her name to address her. Detail, marketing people, detail! Get the training right. The tech’s great, but don’t forget the interpersonal touches.
That’s the thought behind this article. In the midst of all the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and other information capture and manipulation systems, we run the risk of the client becoming a statistic. Having all the demographic (age, gender, occupation, location of home, language, number of children, etc.) data, or indeed, even some psychographic (lifestyle, attitudinal, preferences, biases, affiliations etc.) type information, doesn’t do a single thing on the interpersonal contact front, if we don’t compel personal engagement.
As John Naisbitt so presciently said twenty years ago in his book, Megatrends, the higher the tech the greater will be the demand by people wanting ‘high touch’, as he described it. That excellent book has now been superseded by his ‘High-tech, High-touch’, in recognition of the enduring principle of getting the balance between the two correct. If you haven’t read it, go visit kalahari.net, amazon.com or exclusivebooks.com, but buy it! It’ll give you a marvellous insight into the dangers of your client-base drifting into the arms of a more personable competitor.
All of us in a client-orientated business need to examine the ratio of tech contact to interpersonal contact. Ask yourself when last you picked up the phone, or pressed the flesh (the hand, of course!) of your clients? If they’ve been reduced to getting only your e-zine, your newsletter, e-mails, voicemails and your text messages on promotions, then beware. Make 2008 your year of high touch.
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