Articles

Technology - Not always right

Jana M. Kemp

Technology is not always the right tool. For instance, when working to sell me something why do companies insist that I go to their website to find their marketing materials? Companies need to make it easy for all potential customers to buy. That means providing web-based as well as hardcopy of materials so that each customer’s buying style can be met.

Plus consider the lack of respect being shown for someone else’s time and money when your company insists on having the customer research and print out your marketing material. Make it easy. Offer the option of web-based materials or of hardcopy.

Another inappropriate use of technology is using email as the sole means of contacting customers. Certainly email is appropriate for those customers, vendors and contacts who have said “only use email” to reach me. However, the number of sales and customer service people relying on only email eliminates the people contact that sales relationships depend upon. What’s happening in your company?

When thinking about the appropriate or inappropriate use of technology, consider what Albert Erisman, co-founder of the Institute for Business, Technology and Ethics and publisher of www.ethix.org has to say. “I think of technology as inappropriate if it leads to poor business solutions. In other words it adds more cost than necessary, or more cost than benefit. Or if technology creates a poor environment for people such as creating mind-numbing jobs for employees, underutilizing the skills of employees, or causing frustrations for customers. And in the extreme, technology is inappropriate if it actually harms people.”

Erisman adds to the inappropriate technology uses list the use of personal-digital-assistants and handheld tools when a paper calendar printout is faster to use, the use of on-site computer registration at meetings when it’s not necessary, and constant checking of incoming emails.

Lest you think I’m anti-technology, I too depend on technology. Telephones, airplanes, computerized customer contact software, invoicing, and bookkeeping systems all have roles in my company operations. I use email only with those individuals who have said that is their tool of choice. I have a website that serves as a support to the hardcopy marketing materials I use. In other words, there is a time and a place for technology. Is your company using technology in the best possible ways?

ACTION ITEMS: Review your organization’s use of technology. Identify what can be improved. Streamline where possible. Eliminate dependence on technology where practical during the sales process.
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Reprint Permission: The author is willing to grant reprint permissions. Please contact Jana Kemp: jana@janakemp.com or call 208-367-1701.