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DWC Home | Magazine | Back Issues | July 2004 | Take Note |
| TAKE NOTE ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS ONLINE? If you’re looking for clients from high-income households, you can bet they’re online and using high-speed connections, too. A Nielson/Net Ratings survey earlier this year found that online surfers with total household incomes of $150,000 or more grew by 31 percent since March 2003. This increase makes them the fastest-growing income group among Internet users. Not surprisingly, high-income users also prefer high-speed connections with only 31 percent using a dial up service. THE VALUE OF TIME Product quality and price are key ingredients for building customer loyalty, but a new study examining how women—who often are the chief purchasing agents for their households—calculate good value shows that saving time may be the most important factor. The study, “Elevated Expectations: The New Female Value Equation,” was released by the U.S.-based consultants Frank About Women. It found that three out of four women surveyed said they would pay a little more for a product that saves them time, and 48 percent said they would pick a product that saves them time over a product that saves them money. While price and quality remain important, women also look for products that do what they want them to do and products that make them feel how they want to feel. FRIENDS AND CO-WORKERS American work ethics tend to keep relationships at the office on a strictly business level. But a study led by University of Michigan sociologist Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks notes that keeping co-workers at an emotional distance may not be the most effective way to get the job done in today’s global environment. “An impersonal style tends to restrict the bandwidth of information a person attends to in the workplace,” Sanchez-Burks says. Friendly workers pay attention to indirect meanings, work well with other cultures and are perceived as trustworthy. |