“In the past, the word love was reserved for the feeling between two people, today it has become inflationary in our language usage. It’s high time to break up.”
This article made my ears prick up. Because often in the industry, when we talk about customer orientation, we also talk about affection, dedication, sometimes the Americans call it obsession – obsession – with the customer.
Is that love? Does it have to be love? Is it just an empty promise?
When Pro7 says “We Love to entertain you”? The former McDonalds advertisement “I love it” was the start for me – although the word “it” in the slogan always bothered me.
The author writes of an inflationary use of the word. “In German, however, love was long reserved exclusively for the great feeling between two people”.
In the Anglicist language area the word “love” has always been used differently, much more frequently. “I love you” or even the saying of McDonald’s “I love it” have an effect from a different history or in a different context.
Where I have seen and felt customer love live and in colour was about 45 to 50 years ago. When I was a little boy, my father and I went shopping at Breuninger. I observed the following situation:
- In the Exquisite department, after a successful sales talk, the salesperson handed over the full shopping bag to the customer. Then the salesperson said goodbye to his customer. Not with a handshake, but with a friendly embrace and the touch of the cheeks left and right.
- Many years later, when I myself was head of CRM at Breuninger, I remembered this situation, which I will never forget. It wasn’t customer love, but certainly very close. It may be that the two knew each other from their school days. But such a familiar farewell in public, especially at that time, was quite extraordinary.
- Even the best technology, app or software cannot convey the feeling of trust that the salesperson conveyed to the customer back then.
– Read more www.zeit.de/zeit-magazin/2018/53/sprachgebrauch-liebe-wort-verwendung-gefuehl-wertverlust
Also interesting: Telemarketing judgement: Pseudonyms for employees not allowed
Note: This is a machine translation. It is neither 100% complete nor 100% correct. We can therefore not guarantee the result.
