To the consumer, this plethora of information not only provides negotiating power hitherto only dreamt of, it also offers a range of choices not previously available to earlier generations.

In days gone by, businesses could afford to be somewhat relaxed in relying on the loyalty of their regular customers. My parents, for example, still bank with the same bank they did forty years ago. The thought of shifting to another bank, unless faced with exceptional circumstances, would be totally foreign to their thinking. The continued existence of such customer relationships diminishes with every passing day.

The term ‘vigilante’ refers to someone who has taken the law into his or her own hands, or in this context, someone who is no longer prepared to play by the established rules. The old customer ‘rule’ was that if a customer did business with the same company over an extended period of time, then that business could rightfully expect their continued custom on an ongoing basis. So strong were these unwritten rules, that it was deemed a beach of trust for a customer to have dealings with a competitor company.

To the new vigilante customer these old rules of business etiquette are not only viewed with contempt, they are no longer considered to even exist.

It would be easy for business to simply say, "well, to hell with them. Let them take their business elsewhere." And whilst this attitude may have the temporary effect of making one feel good, the long-term effect on bottom line performance is disastrous.

Countless research surveys over the years all agree on one thing, that the cost of obtaining a new customer is approximately six times greater than retaining an existing one. Combine this with the new reality that customer allegiance is no longer the automatic luxury it was in times gone by, it becomes obvious that service levels of the past are no longer sufficient to maintain the loyalty of vigilante customers in the new millennium.

To quote Carl Sewell, author of Customers for Life, in the service industry "there ain’t no such thing as after hours". Driven by economic globalisation, and supported by the Internet, the world is now open for business twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Like it or not, these new realities are responsible for forming the increased expectations of your customers. Your customers now want to know why if other businesses can provide a twenty-four hour around the clock service, then why can’t you? Now I am not suggesting that finding solutions to these new realities are easy. But what I am saying is that if you don’t find new ways of meeting the demands and desires of your customers, then they will have no hesitation in taking their business elsewhere. Elsewhere being dozens of other places around town and, thanks to the Internet, a thousand other places around the globe.

I often begin my keynote presentations on Customer Relationship Management with the seemingly simple question, "do McDonalds make the best burgers in town?" Not surprisingly, the question is met with a resounding NO! My follow up question is, "well how come they sell more than anyone else?" Answers include, ‘They have better service, they advertise more, cleanliness, consistency, they appeal more to kids etc. etc.’ Now whilst I agree that these answers are all component parts of McDonald’s success formula, there is another factor which eludes most audiences. One of the main reasons why McDonald’s sell more than anyone else is, THEY ARE OPEN!

On the main boulevard in the suburb where I live, there are twelve fast-food outlets in a row. At 6.00am in the morning, only one is open for business. In the evening at 11.00pm, again only one is still serving customers. You guessed it, McDonalds.

McDonalds thoroughly understand one of the most important keys to business success in today’s marketplace, the need to be open for business at a time when your customers wish to do business with you, not simply at a time when you wish to do business with your customers.

A major key to being able to clearly identify exactly why your customers choose to do business with you begins with the question, "what is the purpose of my business?"

Many answer that question with "to make money". But is that the purpose of business, or is it the purpose of the business owners or shareholders? True, the purpose of business owners is to make money, but that is not the purpose of the business itself. I agree with management guru Peter Drucker who says that the purpose of business is ‘to serve the customer’. It is vitally important to view the business and its owners as two completely separate entities.

The Parker Pen Company is successful because it knows it is not in the pen, nor writing, nor communications business, but in the giftware business. It knows only too well that the majority of its customers purchase Parker pens as gifts for others.

It is important to remember that your customers do not buy your product or service. What they buy is the ‘product’ or result of your product or service. They don’t buy insurance; they buy peace of mind. They don’t buy a drill-bit; they buy a hole. They don’t buy a car; they buy transport or a status symbol. They don’t buy a gas heater; they buy warmth. As Helena Rubinstein said, "I don’t sell perfume, I sell hope."

Getting clear about what business you are really in will make an enormous difference to understanding how to better take care of your customers. Paradoxically, by focusing on serving your customers, you’ll make more money in the process. Profit, in my opinion, is simply a scorecard of how well you treat your customers.

Technology.

Our forefathers could never have dreamed of the technology that we have at our disposal in business today. However, there is technology and there is technology.

On numerous occasions, I have asked audiences "who enjoys making a phone-call to company X and being greeted with, to speak to department A, press one, to speak to department B, press two, and so on and so on?" In five years of asking that question to hundreds of audiences, only three people have ever raised their hands in the affirmative. The rest, often vociferously, have reacted negatively to such telephone systems, with most considering it an insult to be treated in such a manner. Many claimed to have taken their business elsewhere as a result of companies installing automated telephone technologies. Customers wish to be treated as people, not as ‘pin’numbers.

My anecdotal research reveals that when people make a phone-call, there are only two things they require. One, to speak to a human being, and two, to speak to a human being who can answer their question. Hardly rocket science, is it?

On the other side of the technology equation, there are some areas of business where I don’t believe you can invest too heavily. One area is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology. Whereas in the industrial age, the value of a business was calculated by combining plant and buildings, fixtures and fittings, and stock in trade with a good measure of goodwill thrown in, today’s information age businesses will be valued almost exclusively on the quality of their customer databases. Ensuring both the accuracy and quality of purchase volumes and patterns, along with demographic and psychographic details, requires management placing a very high priority on CRM technology. Modern database and CRM technology also enables you to cost effectively maintain regular contact with your customers, a key essential to the future success of your business.

Hand in hand with the CRM systems, are Internet, website and ‘e’commerce technologies that companies will need to embrace if they choose to keep pace with the changing face of business.

By all means embrace technology, but don’t get hi-jacked by it.

Customisation.

We no longer live in a ‘one size fits all world’. Just as the Baby Boomers have "I want it now" as their mantra, the Generation Xer’s, who are now in their mid thirties with plenty of money in their pockets, have "I’m an individual" as their own. They are not interested in what others are having, doing or wearing, they are only interested in what they want today, which in turn could be quite different from what they want tomorrow. The challenge for business is to have the necessary systems and processes in place to be able to satisfy and take care of the varied demands of customers ‘one at a time’. The Ritz Carlton Hotel chain for example, is able to customise the contents of room Bar Fridges for its regular clients based on previously harvested customer data. Do you know your clients that well?

This is also where CRM technology becomes so essential. Keeping track of the individual requirements of customers would be totally impossible with manual systems.

In addition, keeping database information current and accurate can only be achieved by regularly conducting customer surveys. This can be done in varying ways from telephone surveys, postal surveys, focus groups and point of sale questionnaires. In short, you can never know too much about your customers. Investment in modern CRM technology will make this possible.

The collective demands of Vigilante customers is the driving energy that will either force business to rise to new heights of customer service, or force the non-performers out of business.

Service Leadership.

So who is it that will drive the new standards of service within your organisation? Who is that is ultimately responsible for ensuring the loyalty of customers?

Well one thing I know for sure after many years experience as a Marketing Futurist, is that the level of external service that one receives as a customer, is always a mirror image of how the company’s internal customers, i.e. staff, are being served. Treat staff like dirt, or treat them like Kings and Queens; they will respond in kind to your customers accordingly. Customer service then, lies squarely at the feet of senior management.

The late Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, now the world’s largest employer, summed it up best when he said that, "great leaders are what they want their companies to become".

Alcoholic’s Anonymous has a great definition for insanity and that is ‘to keep doing the same thing but expecting to get a different result’. Sadly, I see too many businesses persisting with outmoded systems and strategies, with their heads in the sand hoping and praying that vigilante customers will magically come back into their fold.

The future demands different answers. Different answers can only be found by having the courage to ask different questions.