We seem to be in a headlong rush to automate and depersonalize our marketing and sales engagement. It seems the future is “virtual” biasing whatever interaction we have with customers to being action at a distance through Zoom, Teams, or other platforms.
We are automating our customer engagement processes, citing customer preference for “rep-less buying” experiences, ignoring the high levels of buyer regret, based on those rep-less experiences.
We seem oblivious to the customer confusion, overwhelm, and uncertainty, despite the data around sensemaking and decision confidence.
We seem to be racing to dehumanizing organizations and the buying experience, focusing on volume and efficiency rather than quality of customer and employee experience.
At the same time, we are exhausted from the 2+ years of “isolation” resulting from the pandemic.
We yearn for human to human interaction. We want to go to games, the theater, concerts, restaurants, shopping. We yearn for physical rather than virtual engagement. We want to gather with each other, in person, to fulfill our personal needs for connection. We are willing to put our health and that of others at risk, because we crave that interaction.
We strive to keep our children’s schools open, that we find ways of making them safe for in person, face to face interaction. We know the quality of their experience is far higher, the quality of learning is far higher, that they develop and grow more through human to human interaction and engagement.
Is anyone else as confused as I am?
When are we going to recognize that business, buying/selling are human processes? That we crave, grow, and learn through interaction and engagement with each other. That the technology augments the process but does not displace it.
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