The French are astonishing. We hold the sad trophy of being the world's leading consumer of psychotropic drugs. Uniquely in the world, our fellow citizens' confidence in the future has plummeted by 35 points in 4 years, and unsurprisingly, 68% of us feel that service quality is deteriorating.
Everything's going wrong! Waiters are pouting, SNCF and banks are closing counters, cashiers are being replaced by automatons, chatbots are replacing real humans in customer service centers, and low-cost airlines are abusing their customers. An inventory of the dissatisfaction and frustration with service quality in France would probably not fit in a phone book written in size 8 font!
Does our penchant for the past cloud our judgement? The truth is that service quality has never been better, whatever the sector.. What's more, the notion of service quality has been widely democratized, with customers' views, opinions and moods being listened to and taken into account in a way that has no comparison with the past.
The most indisputable icon of French progress is undoubtedly the Post Office. This institution, founded by Louis XI in 1477, fascinates by the formidable work it has accomplished to adapt this ancient administration to a mercilessly competitive environment. As the first French company to be hit by the tsunami of digital disruptions as early as 1987, with e-mails wiping out the mail market, this former emblem of a Courteline-style civil service has succeeded in undergoing an impressive cultural transformation. Today's post offices are packed with new services, queues have dried up, staff are committed, smiling - in short, welcoming and professional. La Poste has reinvented itself, building on its strengths to develop new, useful services for the French people: well done!
The Renault salesman who, in 1967, invited his customers to place a bag of cement in the boot of their Aronde to improve roadholding, clearly belongs to prehistory. Looking back just 13 years, the advances in customer relations are breathtaking. Remember: Apple had not yet revolutionized the telephone. Reserving a train or plane ticket, ordering a cab or a night in a hotel was like an obstacle course. In the meantime, customers have become over-informed, demanding ever more from their brands. Rather than a linear and homogeneous evolution in consumption patterns, we are witnessing an unprecedented revolution that is fragmenting the world of commerce. The revolution is underway, and it's not going to stop. In this revolution, three tribes of consumers have structured themselves according to their relationship to modernity and change.
1/ the consumers
These are the people who maintain "old school" relationships with their brands and distributors. They watch but don't act. For the most part, they remain insensitive to the hubbub of social networks. They play little part in the life of the brands they buy. At best, they are content to answer satisfaction questionnaires. It's among this group that we find the largest number of nostalgics for a fantasized but long-gone past. Less than a deterioration in actual service quality, they deplore the changes in interfaces, channels and modes of communication with increasingly agile, innovative and global companies. They are indignant about the disappearance of cashiers, information agents, gas station attendants and punch clerks in Les Lilas ... or elsewhere.
2/ The conso-followers
They're the soft underbelly of our society. Neither promoters nor resistant to change, they adapt to new behavioral codes and technologies at their own pace. They gradually modify their habits without ever taking the lead in their community. They consult the web, buy online and use a few apps. Their attitude to brands remains passive, with the exception of expressing opinions and like/no like on social networks.
3/ Consumers "actors and citizens
These are the most active of the three families. For them, a hierarchical relationship between brands and consumers is unbearable. They take part in forums, express their opinions and are largely interventionist. They are capable of mobilizing and launching real online protests to criticize a new product, an advertisement or a logo change. They don't watch much TV, follow bloggers, participate actively in forums and sometimes take the lead in battles or causes they feel are right and just.
The "conso actors and citizens" represent the showcase of the new consumerism. This population's patron saint is Saint Thomas: they seek to understand, look for contradictory points of view and think before they buy. Above all, they are suspicious of salespeople and sales pitches. So they seek out trusted third parties capable of reassuring them. At the end of 2018, 30% of French people followed at least one blogger. 8 out of 10 insurance policies and 7 out of 10 home loans are no longer taken out as part of a bipartite deed of sale between a salesperson and a customer. Indirect distribution models using trusted third parties represent the future. This is one of the paradoxes of selling in a digital world: while logic would have it that digital should accelerate widespread disintermediation, we are instead witnessing the development of new distribution networks or channels of influence acting as trusted third parties. This trend is particularly significant for high-stakes purchases (mortgage brokers, credit restructuring brokers, banks' private banking departments, external consultants in the energy sector, as well as influencers in fashion, beauty, decoration, travel, going out, etc.).
In many respects, distorted perceptions of service quality reflect the fractures running through French society. Advances in conversational interfaces and data processing (click-to-call, chat bot and big data, artificial intelligence) should enable greater personalization and accessibility of services. Nevertheless, an in-depth analysis of French people's views on customer experience, services and Artificial Intelligence shows a fantastic need for humanity, listening, empathy and proven advice. Customer Relations centers and sales teams will have to respond to this demand. Efficiently and seamlessly sharing the information contained in relevant CRMs, sales and customer relations functions, which are currently largely separate, will gradually merge. Only then will customers be better satisfied, listened to and supported in this new ecosystem, which combines digital and physical networks, technology and people, data analysis and emotions.