What's your realtionship with your customers?

In his book "Re-Imagine", Tom Peters writes about the evolution of the customer relationship in business. He touches on some of the same territory as the cluetrain manifesto.

Before industrialization, vendors were inherently close to their customers. In the marketplace of those times, it was a one-to-one relationship.

Then with industrialization vendors became cut off from customers, focusing only on pushing products at them.

By the early Sixties, marketing was coming into its own. Corporations rediscovered customers and began to 'research' them. But the relationship was all about "data" and theory.

In early Eighties, Peter's book "In Search of Excellence" wrote about the need to 'Stay Close to the Customer' and corporate managers who got out to meet real live cusomers in the flesh.

By the beginning of the Twenty-First Century, in large part because of internet technology, the relationship had changed to 'Becoming One with the Customer' and managers focused on integrating with, and getting even closer to, the customer.

Peter's says that in 20 years, vendors will be inseparable from the customer, and we will have come full circle. The cluetrain manifesto calls this the 'wired marketplace."

What's your relationship with your customers? Are you prepared for the wired marketplace?


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