shoppers-staff-leadership: Distinguishing Between ‘Caring About’ And ‘Caring For’- And Why It issues

December 27, 2014

on condition that I in finding myself in the week of Christmas, it occurs to me that lately is a good time to diving into caring. And in particular, I are looking to make/introduce a big difference. Which difference? I wish to distinguish between ‘caring about’ and ‘caring for’. Let’s begin with the realm of shopper.

Caring About customers v Caring For the customer

i am clear that folks in business care about buyers. particularly, they care about:

determining what makes buyers tick – by means of ‘listening’ to customers thru market analysis, social listening, ethnography, and voice of the customer surveying;
Getting extra clients – turning prospects into customers via pushing out the fitting message, proper supply, at the proper time and thru the correct conversation channel;
conserving extra of their current clients shopping for from them for longer – thru a range of tactics together with making it easier for purchasers to do business with the employer (decreasing effort, making improvements to get admission to, making improvements to the client expertise) and thru focused incentives (promotions, discounts, loyalty points);
promoting a much broader vary of ‘products’ to existing shoppers – by turning purchaser knowledge into perception through using data mining and predictive analytics or simply plain collaborative filtering;
moving present clients from lower margin ‘merchandise’ to larger margin shoppers – thru using vary of ways and tactics;
profitable back individuals who was consumers – frequently through some more or less attractive merchandising, bargain or, hardly, a new/compelling ‘product’; and
Servicing shoppers in a sensible method – by means of the use of the right mix (digital, phone) of customer carrier channels.

Now, let’s flip our attention to caring for the client. Let’s start with the basic question, who (namely) cares for the customer? Let’s make this much more explicit, who cares for me? As a customer, I handle many firms and i’m clear that there’s no longer one firm/enterprise that cares for me. not one! I, as a flesh and blood someone, do not convey up on the organisational radar. Does somebody in an agency ever deal with me in a trade context? once I engage with the organizations that I have interaction with do I get left with the feeling-experience of being cared for by an business enterprise? the reply is: No! Are there any occasions where I, as a purchaser, really feel cared for? sure. When do I expertise this type of expertise? after I come across a Welcomer. what is a Welcomer? For me a Welcomer is a human being who, in his being, welcomes me as a fellow person. S/he going past the formalised rituals of industry and organisational existence, past the scripts, past the transaction, and reaches out to me as one someone to another. i know when this is happening as a result of I notice and experience the English reserve breaking down. there is breaking down of boundaries, whilst still respecting boundary. There tends to be mutual disclosure of the human variety: sharing occurs. And there tends to be smiling, even laughter. as a result of these types of encounters, I to find myself uplifted, smiling, grateful and with a sense of pleasure in being a member of the human race. a lot of these encounters go away me with hope, with optimism in my footsteps. I invite you to believe that there is a world of distinction between ‘caring about’ shoppers and ‘caring for’ the client. notice the difference: within the realm of ‘caring about’ we’re dealing with customers whereas in the realm of ‘caring for’ we are in the realm of the person purchaser – that one person. there is a vast difference. And it happens to me that the parents who talk about, evangelise about, preach out all things purchaser aren’t current to this very important difference. Does this indifference between ‘caring about’ buyers and ‘caring for’ the buyer matter? I say it issues – it issues to every purchaser. You see this is the deepest and most radical that means of personalisation – chatting with the particular person of that one individual (the buyer). I invite you to listen to the next phrases:

the general obsession with gazing only historical or sociological actions, and now not a particular individual …. is as mistaken as a doctor who does not take an pastime in a selected case. each explicit case is an experience that may be precious to the figuring out of the illness……. ….. this indifference to the individual, complete lack of pastime in intimate information of the isolated, unique someone, atrophies human reactions and humanism. too much social consciousness and no longer a little of perception into human beings. As quickly as you discuss in psychological terms ….. individuals act as if you happen to had a scarcity of passion in the wider currents of the historical past of man. In other phrases, they feel ready to review plenty and consider this extra virtuous, assign of a vaster concept than on the subject of one particular person. This makes them …. inadequate in relationships, in friendships, in psychological understanding. – Anias Nin

I invite you to believe that the strongest bonds, usually known as loyalty, occurs the place one individual experiences himself cared for (as a novel someone) by way of another someone. Is it then any shock that regardless of the controversy of shopper loyalty, and the entire consumer loyalty programmes and ways, there is so little loyalty between clients and brands.

Caring About staff v Caring For the worker

certain, corporations ‘care about’ employees. it is the employees who do the work – the work that creates worth for the the customer. The work that finally ends up generating earnings and income. So I find that firms care an excellent deal about their staff together with but no longer restricted to:

Attracting the precise individuals to become staff of the service provider;
preserving essentially the most treasured staff;
Getting extra out of their current workers (productiveness, collaboration, teamwork, concepts..);
ranking staff for efficiency management functions;
Minimising the prices related to recruiting, protecting, managing, controlling staff.

Now, who to your service provider if truth be told cares for that person flesh+blood individual to whom you’ve got given the label worker, and, subsequently deprived him/her of personhood and turned him/her into a category? Let me ask this question differently, as an employee do i believe cared for? Who do i feel cares for me in this service provider during which I in finding myself employed? I invite you to imagine that there’s world of difference between ‘caring about’ workers and ‘caring for’ the person to whom you have given the label employee. Does this distinction subject? in fact it issues! until this difference is recognised and acted up establishments will proceed to grapple with the problem of ‘worker engagement’. Why will have to I engage with you and your employer once I do not feel myself cared for – as a novel someone?

What Has This To Do With management?

I invite you to believe that this distinction between ‘caring about’ staff and ‘caring for’ the person whether below the label ‘customer’ or the label ‘employee’ can be utilized to differentiate between management and management. Leaders must dwell within the human real, the private realm: ‘caring for’ the individual. right here I share the following wise phrases with you:

My lack of religion in the males who lead us is that they don’t recognize the irrational in males, they’ve no perception, and whoever does not recognize the non-public, particular person drama of man can’t lead them. – Anais Nin

something to believe And Play For At Christmas?

As you head into Christmas and the festivities the place hopefully you will be in amidst people who find themselves domestic and pals, I invite you to be existing to the glory between ‘caring about’ and ‘caring for’ the individuals who you will be meeting up with and celebrating Christmas with. It happens to me that making the shift from ‘caring about’ the parents you end up with, to ‘caring for’ each and every person that’s there’ll grow to be your (and their) experience of Christmas. in case you play this ‘recreation’ it’s possible you’ll just to find that ‘caring about’ is straightforward, ‘caring for’ is actually troublesome. This would possibly just provide an explanation for why it’s that the entire other folks who speak customer and worker make ‘caring about’ masquerade as ‘caring for’. The attention-grabbing thing is that whilst we can hoodwink ourselves within the management suite, our shoppers and our employees usually are not hoodwinked that simply: they experience and realize the adaptation between ‘caring about’ and ‘caring for’ – which is why they don’t seem to be loyal to us and rightly so.