Link This | Email this | Blog This | Comments (0)

Reaching Out Through Technology: The Missing Handshake
August 30, 2007

A recent edition of The Economist magazine included an article (Far away yet strangely personal) describing the latest in what those who sell such technology call “telepresence,” — for the rest of us, video conferencing. The bottom line is a significantly better videoconferencing experience relative to what you likely have experienced, which I suppose it should be given the $350,000 cost per room plus $18,000 a month for the service.   

You can read the article if you want to learn more about how they make it better. I take at face value that it is so, while obviously limited in terms of who will be able to afford it regardless of the claim that “ … they quickly pay for themselves by keeping travel bills down.” $350,000 per room plus $18,000 a month buys a lot of nights at the Quality Inn not to mention delayed and canceled flights.

With due respect to the engineers who invent such technology, I humbly ask, can your telepresence system let me shake the hand of a person with whom I am meeting? Can I lend him or her a ballpoint pen? Can I share a bag of chips should we decide to work through lunch?

I know none of this is possible and apologize for questions that sound intentionally facetious. That was not my intent. I am also not trying to make the case that the type of business that would typically be done by companies who can afford technology such as this, would not be simply because people are not physically in a room together. Nor will I take up the issue of cost. Instead I want to use this as just one example among many where we substitute technology for human contact and in the process lose something very important.

The majority of you reading this are likely retailers either managing a consumer electronic retail business or if you work on the sales floor, in daily contact with potential customers who visit your store. If you have done this for 10 years or more, you know how much technology has improved your ability to communicate with customers with most of that coming from the Internet. But don’t be fooled into thinking that all the ways we can faceless-ly interact with customers means we no longer need one-on-one contact as was once true. We do. In fact we need it even more given the amount and complexity of technology you now sell. Advances in social networking, text messaging, viral marketing, etc. are all good and well but they cannot replace the magic that can only happen when two people actually talk to each other.

Use communication technology to your advantage; if not a $350,000 telepresence room, then whatever you have available to you. In fact use all the communication technology you can possibly afford. But whatever you do, at the top of that list should be investing in the people who actually talk with the customers who walk through your door. The alternative, relying only or primarily on technology for communication leaves your business offering a technology hand few will want to shake. 

Bill Matthies is the president of Coyote Insight (www.coyoteinsight.com) and can be reached at (714) 726-2901 or wmatthies@coyoteinsight.com

Posted by Bill Matthies on August 30, 2007 | Comments (0)