Here is an interesting read from Seth Godin.
We tend to use new tools to do less. We try to save time and money at the same time, and end up depersonalizing and commodifying what we do.
A simple example: cost and speed pressure means that when you get your car serviced, it’s unlikely you’ll be greeted by the mechanic himself, wiping his hands on a greasy rag, telling you exactly what he did to your car. Instead, you’ll get a difficult to decipher printout.
Why not use the technology to give more?
[From Old marketing with new tools]
I think Seth hits the target spot on in this post – but I’d go one step further.
We use communications technologies today to avoid communicating.
Since I’ve been telling people about page2call and it’s innovative ability to turn website page views into phone calls – you would be shocked at how many small business owners have said told me some version of what follows:
Can’t I just collect the name and phone number – if I need business I can call them back later.
The irony here is that when you talk to prospective customers of these same businesses what they want is access – they don’t want to be tele-marketed when business gets slow – they want to talk to you about your service now (that’s why they chose to call). And most of them will not do business with you if you are not accessible on their terms.
While cosinity could give you the tools to do pure lead generation based on page2call we’re not sure it is what you really want. We know it sounds good to you, but it sounds terrible to your customers. So let’s use the technology to – as Seth put it – do more, not do less.