Is Value Creation from Human Connection an Area of Opportunity for Companies to Stand Out?

Company executives believe they know the value of their product or service they provide, but the true judge of value comes from the customer’s perspective, which is constantly changing and shaped by every interaction, directly or indirectly, with a company. Customer perspective plays a large part in determining a company’s brand and the values the company stands for. It can impact how the employees of a company work collectively toward specific company values.

The number one reason customers leave a business feeling dissatisfied with their experience is poor customer service and indifferent customer representatives. As a result, customer service is an area that holds great potential for companies to really stand out from their competition.

In a marketplace with fewer competing companies, consumers have little choice as to where they buy their goods. Companies can tell the customers that they provide a great service without actually following through with the promise—how easy for the companies! But now that companies face more competitors, companies no longer rule the marketplace. The consumer does. It does not matter how much value the company executives and employees think they are providing the customer. If the customer perceives that the value provided is lacking, then they can easily take their business to a competitor instead.

With the introduction of the Internet and web, information is readily available. Technology has changed the behavior of consumers overnight. That once-trusting ‘believer’ evolved into a very sophisticated ‘researcher,’ and the buying patterns of consumers are no longer as predictable, controllable or reliable as they have been.

When a company transforms into a customer-centric organization, a collective mindset emerges that prompts employees to strive for a positive customer experience and perception.  In every transaction between the customer and a company representative, value is always being created or destroyed! Positive value leaves the customer feeling better than before they interacted with a company and employee. Negative value leaves the customer feeling worse than before the interaction. Understanding customer perceptions is fundamental to facilitating positive customer value creation, and it is something every executives and employees alike should be aware of.

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The abstract:

This article introduces an area of value creation seldom considered in the strategic sense in business: value creation from human connections. And given the number one reason for customers leaving a business is a feeling of indifference from a company representative; this is an area that holds a great opportunity for companies to really stand out from their competition. This article examines where business has come from, where we are now and why the critical need to revamp our way of thinking. When a company transforms into a customer-centric organization, a collective mindset to design for the desired outcome of customer emotion emerges.

Click here to read Human Connection: Uncharted Territory for Value Creation for free from the Journal of Creating Value.

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*Market photo credited to the US Department of Agriculture (CC)