I received a quote for a rather extensive home remodeling job. The amount quoted fell within my expectations. I spoke with my fiancee and she felt the price was fair.
...and then a funny thing happened. We realized that we had no real basis on why we felt the quote was fair, or how we created our expectations.
We discussed this a tad more and realized that the ability for a crew to come in and rip out something as seemingly permanent and solid as walls and structure, and then recreate an even more solid and permanent structure was a tad magical. What would be accomplished with hammers and nails could just have easily been accomplished with wands and spell books (in our simple minds).
So what's my point??.......My industry seems to have lost it's magic. This seems ironic to me, as telecommunications/technology is very intangible, incredibly impacting to the world around it, and evolving at lightning speed. Very few can understand what it takes to pick up the phone and make a call, send an email, or process a transaction that traverses a nationwide network. It seems one would see technology as made of pixie dust and dragon fire.
Instead, it is one of the more mentally commoditized services in the business world. I think I may know why.
A wall is easy to understand. I can put my hand on it. I can look out on a rainy day and see it protecting me from the elements. But when the contractor pulls back a panel, and I see an entire sub-structure behind it, I am a little amazed. Tangible, but with an amazing and unseen structure behind it.
So...when a person hits send or enter, or makes a call, they have a much less tangible transaction than with a wall. It's almost ethereal. And almost none of them will ever be able to pull back a panel and see any form of sub-structure. Voice and data services are not brick and mortar......again, very ethereal.
So, fellow telecom/technology vendors we must provide a way to show tangible examples of how our services work. Show a little wall but pull back a panel, so to speak.
...and then a funny thing happened. We realized that we had no real basis on why we felt the quote was fair, or how we created our expectations.
We discussed this a tad more and realized that the ability for a crew to come in and rip out something as seemingly permanent and solid as walls and structure, and then recreate an even more solid and permanent structure was a tad magical. What would be accomplished with hammers and nails could just have easily been accomplished with wands and spell books (in our simple minds).
So what's my point??.......My industry seems to have lost it's magic. This seems ironic to me, as telecommunications/technology is very intangible, incredibly impacting to the world around it, and evolving at lightning speed. Very few can understand what it takes to pick up the phone and make a call, send an email, or process a transaction that traverses a nationwide network. It seems one would see technology as made of pixie dust and dragon fire.
Instead, it is one of the more mentally commoditized services in the business world. I think I may know why.
A wall is easy to understand. I can put my hand on it. I can look out on a rainy day and see it protecting me from the elements. But when the contractor pulls back a panel, and I see an entire sub-structure behind it, I am a little amazed. Tangible, but with an amazing and unseen structure behind it.
So...when a person hits send or enter, or makes a call, they have a much less tangible transaction than with a wall. It's almost ethereal. And almost none of them will ever be able to pull back a panel and see any form of sub-structure. Voice and data services are not brick and mortar......again, very ethereal.
So, fellow telecom/technology vendors we must provide a way to show tangible examples of how our services work. Show a little wall but pull back a panel, so to speak.
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