Right now there are companies that know where you are standing. Tap a few buttons on their app, and they will send a car to pick you up, you won't even have to cross the street. Likewise, there are others that know where you are eating. They will send you coupons for dessert, and prompt you to file a review of the meal for others to see. And of course there are those who know what you are buying. If you order toothpaste they will suggest you add floss; if you select a sweater, they will point out a scarf that matches. It's almost as if someone is watching you, a real life version of "The Truman Show." In that 1998 movie, Jim Carey played an insurance salesman whose life is televised to a worldwide audience. To quote Christof, the fictional show's creator, "It isn't always Shakespeare, but it's genuine."
To be fair, the companies we're talking about were all designed from the ground up to be able to do this. Uber, Yelp and Amazon (and others like them) were built to offer goods and services directly to the consumer and build their relationship with you through that interaction. Other old-line firms have adapted along the way, twisting their business practices to compete against these leaders. Walmart, American Express and NBC are all examples of companies that grew up in one era based on a traditional model where customers were at arm's length. Now they envelope their clients in an electronic hug to fight those aforementioned behemoths.
Not every company gets it and can make the adjustment. In most cases those that don't don't last long: it's easy to vote with your feet when your feet are your fingers on a screen. All you do is type in a different address rather than driving to one. But when your choices are limited, or even non-existent, all you can do is howl at the moon. No better example exists than was provided by the recent set of back to back Nor'easters and New York State Electric and Gas, also known as NYSEG. The regulated monopoly that provides the juice where we live, they seemed to be trying to land the Oscar for "Most Inept Response By a Power Company Following a Serious Weather Event."
No one doubts the challenge at hand: one, then another major storm brought wind, snow, rain and general mayhem, plunging thousands into darkness. Locally, of the nearly 6500 residents serviced by the company, approximately 85% lost power. But it was no surprise, and if you live where we do you have to be ready for it. You would think the same for NYSEG: just as we lay in supplies and water and fuel, they should have crews and parts at the ready. Rather, they seemed surprised. Wind brought down trees brought down lines? Who would have thought it?
Adding insult to injury was the digital side of the story, the part where they reach out with that electronic hug. NYSEG has a website called "Outage Central" where you can check the status of repairs. It has stats and info at the county, town and street level. All good. Until it posts NO time for restoration: we were marked as "Assessing." And then, poof! We disappeared from the list entirely, as if we didn't exist. Made worse was the phone call and text we got: "Your power has been restored." Uh, no, it is not and we are still here. Many calls and texts and emails later and we were at least restored to the rolls of the afflicted. It was like asking to be put on a list of those with cancer just to prove we weren't dead.
And so it went for several days. Updates from our town supervisor revealed town-wide levels of poor response and erratic information. Thankfully we gave in years ago and bought a generator, so were not as bad off as some. But it still felt like a third world country, where not only was the power grid unstable, but we got no response or inaccurate information when we got any. No, we can't vote with our feet; being a regulated monopoly means never having to say you're sorry. All we can do is lodge a complaint with the Public Service Commission. That rate increase you are asking for? Sorry, you need power for that to happen.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford credits his wife for insisting on a generator. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
To be fair, the companies we're talking about were all designed from the ground up to be able to do this. Uber, Yelp and Amazon (and others like them) were built to offer goods and services directly to the consumer and build their relationship with you through that interaction. Other old-line firms have adapted along the way, twisting their business practices to compete against these leaders. Walmart, American Express and NBC are all examples of companies that grew up in one era based on a traditional model where customers were at arm's length. Now they envelope their clients in an electronic hug to fight those aforementioned behemoths.
Not every company gets it and can make the adjustment. In most cases those that don't don't last long: it's easy to vote with your feet when your feet are your fingers on a screen. All you do is type in a different address rather than driving to one. But when your choices are limited, or even non-existent, all you can do is howl at the moon. No better example exists than was provided by the recent set of back to back Nor'easters and New York State Electric and Gas, also known as NYSEG. The regulated monopoly that provides the juice where we live, they seemed to be trying to land the Oscar for "Most Inept Response By a Power Company Following a Serious Weather Event."
No one doubts the challenge at hand: one, then another major storm brought wind, snow, rain and general mayhem, plunging thousands into darkness. Locally, of the nearly 6500 residents serviced by the company, approximately 85% lost power. But it was no surprise, and if you live where we do you have to be ready for it. You would think the same for NYSEG: just as we lay in supplies and water and fuel, they should have crews and parts at the ready. Rather, they seemed surprised. Wind brought down trees brought down lines? Who would have thought it?
Adding insult to injury was the digital side of the story, the part where they reach out with that electronic hug. NYSEG has a website called "Outage Central" where you can check the status of repairs. It has stats and info at the county, town and street level. All good. Until it posts NO time for restoration: we were marked as "Assessing." And then, poof! We disappeared from the list entirely, as if we didn't exist. Made worse was the phone call and text we got: "Your power has been restored." Uh, no, it is not and we are still here. Many calls and texts and emails later and we were at least restored to the rolls of the afflicted. It was like asking to be put on a list of those with cancer just to prove we weren't dead.
And so it went for several days. Updates from our town supervisor revealed town-wide levels of poor response and erratic information. Thankfully we gave in years ago and bought a generator, so were not as bad off as some. But it still felt like a third world country, where not only was the power grid unstable, but we got no response or inaccurate information when we got any. No, we can't vote with our feet; being a regulated monopoly means never having to say you're sorry. All we can do is lodge a complaint with the Public Service Commission. That rate increase you are asking for? Sorry, you need power for that to happen.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford credits his wife for insisting on a generator. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment