DIGITAL DISRUPTION
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A cross every industry in every market , one thing has become clear in 2019 : this is the year of the customer . Ubiquitous advertising , economic discomfort in a shrinking middle class , more ways than ever for people to self-determine the companies they deal with , a hunger for on-demand and personalised products and services , and a younger consumer class grown increasingly distrustful of an unfair capitalist system , are all conspiring to firmly put the ball back in the court of corporations when it comes to attracting and retaining a customer base .
Back in 2018 , James Paine , the Founder of West Realty Advisors wrote , in a piece for Inc , that “ twenty years ago , if you paid for a product or service and you weren ’ t happy with what you received , the best you could hope for was that if you sent in a letter of complaint , you ’ d eventually receive a refund . You could tell a couple of friends and maybe they ’ d tell their friends , but that was about it . Nowadays , though , if a customer has a bad experience then they can post about it online , and if they post about it online then it can go viral and even seriously damage the overall value of your brand . After all , all it took was one tweet from Kylie Jenner to knock US $ 1.3bn off Snapchat ’ s valuation .”
The message from consumers is clear : “ treat us right or perish .”
NOVEMBER 2019