Today, users of social media mercilessly evaluate products and services of all kinds and thus create new market transparency. In addition to clearly measurable and comparable variables, soft and human factors, i.e. play a major role in their assessments. The latter two are particularly interesting because they make companies and products unique.
Social media create market transparency. This simple formula can be used to shorten the impact of social networks on companies in all industries. In this case, however, shortening does not simply mean trivializing, as it is precisely this market transparency that unsettles many companies. Market transparency concerns all industries: No company is now “safe” from reviews from its customers.
If you take a closer look at criticism and praise, you recognize four groups of characteristics according to which products and services are rated. Through these groups, market transparency can also be described in four dimensions.
The hard dimension of transparency: costs
The first group includes “hard” properties. They can be compared objectively: price per quantity, energy consumption per unit of time, or other clearly defined quality criteria. These measurable variables are easy to rank, and the best and worst offers can be identified quickly. Comparisons of hard factors are the original domain of comparison portals. They make an almost infinite amount of data retrievable and rank it according to user requirements.
However, a product evaluation based solely on hard properties makes sense in very few cases: Only generic or standardized products and services can be defined using hard criteria such as their price alone. All others also have soft and human qualities that set them apart from their competitors. This is where the experience comes into play.
Expertise, Experience and Competence: The Dimension of Competence
When it comes to the question of whether you would choose or even recommend a product and its provider again, the experiences you have as a customer are essential. Trained friendliness and phrases are of little use if you as a customer are looking for well-founded information or a solution to a problem: Now the expertise and skills of sales and service staff count just as much as the experience that a contact person has.
However, expertise and experience are of no use to a customer if no one is responsible for them. All too often, customer problems such as hot potatoes are passed on from one place to the next and remain unresolved even after weeks or months. Responsibility is not primarily a question of organization, but of the customer focus of each individual employee, from clerk or salesperson to CEO.
The soft dimension of transparency: convenience
The group of soft factors obviously and often strongly influences the purchase decision. It consists of things that could be described as “convenience.” This includes service before and around the transaction, availability in time and place, after-sales services and warranty conditions, but also workmanship, durability or the fulfillment of promises made before the purchase.
Soft factors can certainly be compared and sometimes ranked. Very often, however, several of these factors interact differently in different products and then make it impossible to make a fair comparison between the products.
The Human Dimension of Transparency: Trust
Human aspects cannot be ranked, yet they also significantly influence purchasing decisions. Values such as hospitality, friendliness, helpfulness, competence or interest in customers can often only be described emotionally, as can the customer's perception of the company and its image. However, human factors determine whether we feel comfortable in contact with a provider, trust them and would choose or recommend them again.
Of course, you can just soft and human factors. However, the asterisks next to a product review never say as much as an image, text, or what is there between the lines. In addition, the author of a review can also be relevant: When choosing a product, you would do well to rate reviews from customers with similar needs higher than others.
People make companies unique
Critics of customer reviews complain that customers today rate things they don't really understand anything about. That may be the case in the eyes of a provider. In the eyes of a customer, however, this is just not true: Only those who evaluate from the customer's perspective can be relevant to the potential customer. And from the customer's perspective, soft and human factors are often very decisive.
This is sometimes frustrating for providers: The more complex a product or service, the more soft and human factors ultimately determine success or failure. In the end, they make the company or service unique; they decide on the reputation, i.e. the good reputation.
Social networks serve as effective platforms for billions of users to share their experiences. Social media and the resulting market transparency have shifted market forces from providers to customers in many places. Anyone who wants to survive in a transparent market would do well to make a positive difference. Soft and human factors are the key to this.
Christian Gartmann, gartmann.biz