Escaping The Tech Trap

The information revolution - computers, cell phones, internet - has created a "Tech Trap." Tech, as in both technology and technique. Business has moved to the internet, with managers and marketers focused on how this or that analysis, searching paradigm or social marketing phenomena can gain new or retain old customers. In a remarkably short time we have collectively slanted our orientation more in the direction of "how" things are done, and somewhat away from the "what" and "why" of what may be needed.

Consumers see little of this. They do not, in general, know how their behavior is tracked (online or offline) or why, nor do they base their decisions on the analysis of marketers. Consumers are interested, primarily, in the products or services that fill their needs, make their lives better, or simply are enjoyable. They do not buy or do things in order to use the internet, the social network, the phone, the store or the drive-thru. These are techniques, means to an end. Consumers have discovered that they may grant or withdraw permission directly or through their agents: do-not-call, do-not-mail lists are one way, anti-spam services are another.

The telephone used to be an expensive tool. In many offices there was not a phone on every desk. The use of 800 numbers was restricted. In today's environment that seems absurd or at the least, quaint. Every staff member has a phone on their desk, with voice mail, often a company cell phone and certainly a personal cell phone. It is a technology that is now taken for granted.

Little by little the newer technologies are moving into the "taken for granted" state. More and more, consultants, pundits and advisers are returning to talk about product and people. That is: what customers want is the product/service, not the means of delivery. Customers are people. Companies are staffed with people. Communication is between people. On both sides of a transaction are people with ideas.

How a salesperson closed the sale: with a personal visit, a letter, an email, a web site or a phone call, is not necessarily a crucial element. It is that the sale was closed and the customer got what was wanted. I hope that this means that the orientation will begin to shift more toward the customer or user, the people designing product for him,  and people presenting product to him - regardless of the channel the presentation or order occurs in.

Change is always exciting. It is a genuine intellectual challenge to discover what changes and improvements the new things may provide. The Tech Trap is vortex of the new technology or techniques. Like the telegraph or canals, the newest development may not last forever in its original form, if at all. The greatest proponents predict the obsolescence of all the old ways, while the Luddites insist that old ways are best. The truth is somewhere in between.
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