How well do you know your Customers?

This week in keeping with every financial crisis, the latest media reports have been highlighted by scenes of earnest young men and women staring intently at their computer monitors as the latest wave of red flood across their screens. It is an all too familiar shorthand for financial Armageddon.

There is no doubting that rapid advances in technology have transformed the way we do business. However whilst we watch the scenes unfold in this  virtual world we should never forget that essentially commerce is about people trading together. Whilst Computer “stop loss” mechanisms are the order of the day for “paper trading” the reality of the real world is that goods need to be moved from point of production to point of consumption and obviously this cannot  be achieved via a computer terminal.

There is an old adage “know your customer,” this dictate has never been more important than in these uncertain and dangerous times. One of the biggest problems associated with the rise of e-commerce has been the accompanying lack of personal contact between a company and its customers.

Obviously this is not an issue for an online retailers selling products over the net and being paid via a Debit Card or Pay Pal etc.

However, there is an increasing tendency for B2B sales to be concluded by email or even SMS. The personal element has been lost and so has the identity and customer relationship. The surest way to avoid problems is by knowing your customer and understanding their business. This relationship and mutual understanding is not possible to maintain thru a key pad and email ordering system.