Remember that United Airlines commercial that featured the guy whose company had just been fired by its oldest customer? You can see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ6Z8kcoi-E. The crestfallen guy, known as Ben, calls together his team and explains the reason for the firing: “They said they didn’t know us anymore. (Dramatic pause.) I think I know why.”
See, Ben’s company had taken to doing business by phone or by fax. Hey, shut up! This was 1989. Faxes were the bomb.
“Well, folks,” Ben says, bringing about another dramatic pause, “something’s gotta change.” He then explains that they’re going to visit every customer they have, and when one employee—probably the CFO, who has to figure out a way to pay for all this—protests that this will take them to more than 200 cities, Ben defiantly announces, “I don’t care.”
Just at that moment, Ben’s secretary arrives with the plane tickets.
Now, before I get to my point, let me ask a few questions: If they’re going to 200+ cities, how are they going to get there with the six or seven plane tickets Ben’s secretary delivers? Also, who made 200 appointments with 200 customers, without any of the people who are going to be making the trips knowing it was going on?
And how was all this accomplished—appointments made, plane tickets purchased (there was no online ordering in 1989!)—in the time span between the phone call that morning and the meeting that took place at some point later that same day?
Ah, you say, I’m nitpicking. But I’m not. I’m leading you to something important.
There are reasons you don’t make face-to-face visits with customers in 200 cities, primarily the fact that it costs too much and wastes too much time. Going to see someone halfway across the country takes at least a day, assuming you fly in and fly out the same day. (And good luck accomplishing that on United!)
Granted, today, unlike in 1989, I could get a lot of work done on the journey, although I probably can’t plug in my laptop or get Internet access on the plane. But the loss of productivity that comes with traveling is only one problem.
If I come from out of town to see you, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to feel obligated to entertain me or otherwise keep me busy. And that’s not going to be easy, especially in my case, because there’s almost nothing I like to do. I don’t want to go see your town’s opera. I would never pretend to be so cultured as to appreciate an art museum. So as you recognize that I’m basically a barbarian, you might think, well, we could take him to a ballgame.
Yeah. Maybe. But let’s say you’re in Atlanta and I’m from Michigan. You could take me to a Braves game, but I couldn’t care less about the Braves. I’d rather sit in my hotel room and follow that night’s Tigers game online.
Wouldn’t it be better if we did business by phone, then an email (since no one uses faxes anymore)? Then, if you want to treat me to a ballgame, you can order me tickets to a Tigers game, and I can think of you fondly while I’m there.
But Ben, his suit coat thrown off to reveal his slick vest, would protest that you can’t build a relationship with a customer that way. And that’s true, but the premise of Ben’s protest is incorrect. The truth is, you don’t want a relationship with me, and I don’t want a relationship with you. I just want your money.
Now, this isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with you personally, and as for me, well, you work with what you have. It’s simply a matter of practicality. The only reason we have anything to do with one another is that you need what I can do, and I need someone to pay me to do it. That’s it. It’s not a bad reason. It’s just not a reason that lends itself to deep, personal bonding.
What’s more, many people in business today are expanding their markets nationally and internationally solely because communication technology now makes it economical to do so. I have customers all over the country, many of whom I’ve never met face-to-face and will never meet face-to-face, all because the nature of business has changed and I can do things that way. Five years ago, almost all my clients were local, and we had face-to-face meetings all the time because no one could come up with any good excuses not to.
There’s also this: We’re in a recession, and its biggest cause was people spending money they couldn’t really afford on stuff they didn’t need. This included people buying gigantic houses when a modest one would have sufficed. It also included big corporations paying for generous wages and bonuses, not to mention executive perks, private club memberships and the like, when none of this really could be shown to be helping their bottom line.
They just spent the money because they had it laying around, and it was fun. They even agreed to pay for people’s health care long after they retired, because hey, why not? But soon all this started to seem like a right for the people on the receiving end, and the crush of the expense crippled some mighty corporate titans.
So how much did Ben spend on those 200 plane tickets? You figure it could have easily been $500 roundtrip in 1989, and let’s be cautious and say each traveler got a hotel room for $50, plus another $50 for food. Looks to me like Ben dropped a cool $12,000 on this traveling binge, not to mention the fact that no one got any work done while they were traveling.
Finally, what makes Ben so sure the face-to-face meetings are going to shore up the accounts? You seriously mean to tell me you don’t have at least one or two employees who have the potential to annoy the hell out of those customers?
“Hmm,” thinks the customer. “Why am I doing business with this jerk? I think I liked it better when I just talked to him on the phone. Account review time!”
Hey. Didn’t you ever overreact to a business setback? Customer fired you? Send your employees across the country on junkets! Money is no object! That’s the way United Airlines would like you to think. Hmm. How much profit does it make?
