On Internet Business

Two Recessions, Customer Service and Social Media

Posted by Michael under customer service, Entrepreneur Resources, Social Media

Seth Godin claims there are two recessions going on.

According to him the first is the cyclical recession that he thinks is currently ending (no sign of the double dip in his forecast) and the other is a permanent recession. He calls it a ‘receding wave of bounty that workers and businesses got as a result of rising productivity but imperfect market communication’. And he says that there are serious consequences to the changes in market communication – the market for ordinary things is now more perfect which means it’s difficult to charge extra.

That’s the easy part.

The difficult part, for much of the population, is that employment is evolving to meet the demands of market improvement too.

Vanishing jobs and new opportunities

The first slice of employment to vanish is the middle-class, mid-level jobs that were created because companies had to be local to other companies or raw materials or to buyers. Godin says that protectionism won’t solve the problem, and that  ‘every revolution destroys the last thing before it turns a profit on a new thing’.

It’s an interesting view and one worth exploring, but there are other things happening too. As job security recedes, people tend to have more than one income-stream: they become ‘entrepreneurs of the self’ and they view employment opportunities not just as income streams but as portfolio activities to enhance, or detract from, the overall project of ‘self’ employment. It means that brand ‘me’ is a big focus for individuals who understand the networked revolution.

Brand ‘me’ under attack from social media

Which casts a new light on the recent backlash against TripAdvisor reviews which has resulted in a proposed defamation suit. MyCustomer.com sees it as a wrongly-thought-out attempt by business to corral customer opinion, but if we’re all entrepreneurs now, then there’s very little difference between the individuals providing the service and the individuals commenting on it. It’s notable that several of the companies taking part in the proposed case are in fact individuals offering bed and breakfast accommodation in their own homes.

In other words, these are portfolio people who don’t view themselves as businesses: they see a review they think is unfair and it’s personal, it attacks them and their competences rather than those of a business entity from which they can separate themselves – they are their business and they feel they have the right to challenge views that may damage their income.

It’s probably still wrong-headed to engage in lawsuits to limit free speech, but the recession of big employment is likely to mean that small employment is much more personal and more intense. Reviews – when seen as attacks on small employers, whether they are businesses or brand ‘me’ service providers - are likely to cause heartache as well as lost sales, and that’s something new forms of employment have not yet come to terms with and social media hasn’t learned to negotiate. It’s a market irregularity that time and experience will iron out, but lawsuits probably won’t.

Abandoned factory courtesy of george.schon at flickr

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