Technology has changed many aspects of today’s society. One of the most dramatic aspects of society that has changed is the way in which we do business. Technology has made business an instant world. One instantly has access to their bank accounts, utility companies, credit card companies, and any other business. They can instantly and quickly pay bills, make payment arrangements, and change their services online. It is no longer necessary to interact with a live human being. Many functions of the daily business world can be taken care of by an automated system. Human to human contact used to be key to building personal client relationships.
Now, it seems that there is no reason to interact with a customer face to face when technology can do the job much more quickly and efficiently. Even though the methods used to maintain the customer relationship have changed, the importance of the customer relationship has not. Maintaining the customer relationship is essential in the ability to build and sustain a business. This research will explore the complexities of maintaining business relationships in response to new technology. It will examine the negative and positive aspects of many types of relationships. It will support the thesis that technology can play an important role in bridging the customer relationship gap.
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"Changing Relationships and Technology".
Hanley (2013) has found that technology has decreased the personal aspect of the business relationship. Much of human communication depends on body language, personal touch, and other non-language elements of personal interaction. These personal elements of communication are missing in media such as chat rooms, email, and online meeting rooms. Shopping online adds an element of risk to business relationships. The customer has the ability to comparison shop online quickly and easily. The purchase decision becomes based entirely on price. The ability of the salesperson to get to know the customer and cater to their needs is not possible in the online world (Boston College, 2010). The customer has little social risk attached to selecting a competitor’s product. Technology makes the ability to build strong customer relationships more difficult, as the human interaction element is no longer a part of the sales process in the online world.
Big data is the new mantra of big business. The online world is in the process of building hug databases that represent almost every aspect of human behavior. Tracking software and algorithms attempts to build a profile of a customer’s shopping habits. This data is used to try to assess the customer’s needs and to make suggestions of other items they might like (Narasimhan, 2013). This used to be the job of the salesperson. When conducting face-to-face sales, the salesperson can tell many things about the person that go beyond which links they click on. They can build a profile based on personal experience and in-depth insights that big data cannot obtain. The personal sales person can make judgments based on how the person stands, their attire, and voice inflection. This in-depth knowledge helps to cement relationships and keep the person coming back, even if a competitor does something like lower their price.
From this evidence, it could be argued that technology has weakened business relationships and personal customer experiences. The same can be said for personal relationships between friends, colleagues, and families. Online relationships cannot replace the sound of a voice, or the touch of a hug. Even relationships that were offline for years can deteriorate in the online world. It is easy for the person’s face to become just another picture in many, unless people make an effort to maintain relationships offline.
However, the Internet has also made it possible to maintain relationships that might otherwise be lost without social applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and email. In the past, when someone moved away, keeping contact was not as easy. People often lost contact. Now, long distance relationships are easier with the use of technology. Even though they do not have the same personal qualities as face-to-face relationships, they are not lost completely. Technology allows lifelong friendships to prevail regardless of space and time. This same concept applies to business relationships too. Business have access to a larger customer base through technology than if they only have a brick and mortar store. A brick and mortar store only has access to the local clientele. The online market has access to the global community.
This exploration of the effects of technology on many types of relationships found that it could have both a positive and a negative effect, depending on how it is used. It can have a detrimental effect on relationships that thrive on touch and personal contact. Typing HUGS can never replace the real thing. Yet, technology allows many relationships to thrive that could not without it.
Technology makes online shopping and customer retention risky. Price becomes the main selling point between two similar items. The online world takes away the ability of the salesperson to greet the person with a friendly voice and a smile. Applications such as Facebook and other social media could be used to bridge this gap. Posting more personal information and asking customers to engage in interaction can help to build closer customer relationships than an automated storefront. Technology provides a level of convenience for the shopper that was not possible before. However, people still crave human contact. Social media can help bridge the gap between face-to-face sales and the convenience of the online world by giving the online business a personality.
- Boston College (2010, August 31). Impact of new media and technology on customer relationships. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 31, 2013, from http://www.sciencedaily.com
- Hanly, Samantha (2013) Technology’s Negative Impact on Business. Demand Media Chron. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com
- Narasimhan, B. (2013, August 28). Build Richer Customer Relationships Using ‘Small Data’. Big Data. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/
