On Internet Business

The New Experts

Posted by Michael under Business Growth, Leadership

In May I had the great pleasure of hearing Robert ‘Bob’ H Bloom speak – since then, I’ve been lucky enough to read his excellent book, The New Experts.

The central premise of his book is that, owing to the internet, buyer behaviour has changed completely. It’s a detailed exploration of how the relationship between business and customer has changed and what makes consumers into the ‘new experts’

Essentially, internet-empowered buyers have four lethal weapons that they can use:

1. instant access to information about a potential purchase
2. almost unlimited choice
3. real-time comparison of price offerings
4. pleasure in ‘victory’ over the seller using the first three weapons

These four weapons mean that customers no longer have loyalty – they don’t care who they buy from or where the seller is located, as long as they ‘win’ the deal

Loyalty versus Preference

Loyalty was the behaviour of trusting a person or brand to provide a product that met the buyer’s needs at a reasonable price and Bloom says it is obsolete.

Customer preference has replaced loyalty and cuts into the buyer’s thinking at four decisive moments in the purchasing period

• the now-or-never moment
• the make-or-break moment
• the keep-or-lose moment
• the highly profitable multiplier moment.

How To Respond

Exceptional companies will master the behaviour of the New Experts and reward them by delivering the joy of victory that the buyer is coming to take for granted. This mastery will allow those companies to make greater profits at the expense of those who have been relying on a loyal customer base that is being eroded. Managing the expectations of the New Experts requires a company to have:

• Top down commitment to create an exceptional experience that generates customer preference.
• Total organisational alignment to ensure this happens.
• Reliable metrics to assure relentless improvement in customer conversion at every decisive moment.

Robert Bloom is worth listening to – he’s had a fantastic success in creating business growth, starting with a local advertising agency he turned into a successful national agency, then he moved on to creating growth strategies for some of the world’s largest companies and brands including BMW, l’Oreal, TGI Friday’s, Whirlpool, and T-Mobile.

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