Transcription:
Businesses have to understand if there's one thing that we have learned that we can teach others about how to do business online.
Word of mouth is dramatically accelerated online.
This is because there's things like Usenet newsgroups and listservs* where people can communicate with others very very powerful.
The internet is like a big megaphone for these folks and so in this environment in this new world, if you make a customer unhappy as we occasionally do.
They don't tell a few friends. They tell 5.000 friends! And likewise, that can work in your advantage of course.
If you turn a customer into an evangelist, they will also tell 5.000 friends.
So you just get this accelerant in both directions in word of mouth. Now what this means for a business is that the balance of power shifts away from the business towards the consumer.
I don't think anyone in this room can argue that that's a bad thing. That's a great thing. It does mean that the business the merchant has to operate in a different way.
And what it means, in particular, is that you have to at least say if in the if in the previous world you had to put 30% of your energy/dollars/focus/attention on building a great customer experience then you put 70% of your energy, focus and dollars in the shouting about it.
I believe online you invert those. It is still important to shout. I think you should put 30% of your energy into shouting and 70% of your energy and the building the best possible customer experience.
*: LISTSERV is a mailing list program that was popular in the early days of the Internet.
