In The Sharing Economy, Don’t Let Your Customer Be The Commodity

​Cost leadership is broken.
 
“It's cheap, fuck face, what are you moaning at me for?”
 
Caring is the only thing a human can do that a robot can't (currently). If your business model is to get in stock, move them fast, sell them cheap then the customer becomes a commodity as well as the product.
 
Don't want to buy right now? Move on, go somewhere else. “You just lost me a sale” is the mindset of the sales person. There is someone else ready to buy and you are not. 
 
This works… Until the commodity dries up. Until the economy tanks.  Until a competitor has slightly higher (or the same) prices and cares just an ounce more.  Until someone else makes it a slightly more pleasant experience for the customer than you. 
 
Then the only thing differentiating you from everyone else dropping their prices is how much you care. If you want to be a cost leader then the extreme is to employ no people. Outsource. Use self-service for everything. But the barrier to entry for this is low and who is going to buy your products if no-one has a job in your country?
 
Caring is the differentiator.  Care more.  Care for more people.  Care more often.

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