Isn’t it funny how old practices always seem to come back around again?
Recently, there has been a lot of attention surrounding the company, “Loop.” Consumers are pleading for more environmentally friendly practices and Loop has answered that call. Loop aims to get rid of disposable containers for products such as shampoo and laundry detergent, and make them reusable.
At Loop, products in recyclable packaging are shipped to consumers in reusable totes, and when consumers are finished, they simply place the empty containers back in the tote. The items are then picked up by a mail delivery service, sanitized, refilled, and sent out again.[1]
Sound familiar?
Many people are calling Loop’s business model “The Milkman Model,” and for good reason. It is almost exactly the same as the 1950’s practice of delivering milk in reusable glass bottles and then retrieving the empty containers.
Isn’t it funny how old practices always seem to come back around again?
We see the Milkman Model as finally giving a name to a common phenomenon: the practice of returning to a previous way of how things were done after remembering how beneficial it truly was.
It’s not just a reminiscent trend in consumer facing industries, though. The old way of doing things also tends to resurface in the way we work. For example, think back to a couple of years ago when IBM called back their remote workers to the office.
The budding trend as of late has been to allow employees to increasingly work from home. In a 2016 SHRM benefits survey, 60% of companies offer their employees telecommuting opportunities—a threefold increase from 1996.[2] IBM, though, found it was no longer advantageous for their strategy and returned to their Milkman Model.
Relationships and collaboration began to suffer amongst employees as interactions were more impersonal over video chats and phone calls. Trust couldn’t be built, or was built with great difficulty, amongst people who had never worked with each other in-person.[3]
So, what have we noticed to be a common Milkman Model of business relationships?
Customer-centricity.
The buzzword, “customer-centric” has been flying around articles as of late. While some may believe this is a brand-new concept, its popularity has ebbed and flowed over time, recently becoming a marketing sensation once again.
Customer-centricity isn’t a marketing ploy, it is a sincere transformation.
While we at S4 never lost sight of customer-centricity, it is important to avoid the cyclical popularity of the term and to think about how it plays into your own business model and the long-term promise it requires.
Customer-centricity shouldn’t be something that goes in and out of vogue for companies. Customer-centricity is about making a genuine cultural change within your organization and dedicating your company to upholding its business relationships.
While trends may come and go it’s important that your company is willing to uphold its commitment, as false claims of customer-centricity may lead to unfulfilled expectations from your customers. Ultimately, this may cause your reputation more damage than if you had never made the claim of being “customer-centric” in the first place.
When deciding whether or not being customer-centric is right for your organization, remember this: Customer-centricity isn’t a marketing ploy, it is a sincere transformation.
By building and maintaining relationships with your customers and business partners in the present, you can avoid falling victim to the customer-centric Milkman Model that may leave your company having to re-center its efforts in the future. While consumer needs may continuously change, being customer-centric will always leave your customers feeling valued.
Sources: [1] Wiener-Bronner, Danielle. "How to Solve the World's Plastics Problem: Bring Back the Milk Man." CNN Business, CNN, 24 Jan. 2019, www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/01/business/loop-reusable-packaging-mission-ahead/index.html. Accessed 26 Feb. 2019. [2] State of the American workplace. (2017). Retrieved from Gallup website: https://news.gallup.com/reports/199961/7.aspx [3] Goman, Carol Kinsey. "Why IBM Brought Remote Workers Back to the Office -- and Why Your Company Might Be Next." Forbes, 12 Oct. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2017/10/12/why-ibm-brought-remote-workers-back-to-the-office-and-why-your-company-might-be-next/#64ec028616da. Accessed 26 Feb. 2019.
