I've had several opportunities lately to work with clients in industries that are fairly old-fashioned with respect to their view of customers. Their comments and attitudes about customer interaction have me thinking…will they have to adapt to survive?

The First Client

In the first instance I was speaking with the owner of a successful and rapidly-growing title company. This client made a comment that I found quite insightful, given his industry. He expressed his fear that the next generation of home buyers won't be like the generation he's currently doing business with. Namely, this new generation would rather go to his website and spend an hour trying to get a question answered than pick up the phone and call to ask the question to a human.

This client is investing heavily in technology and in creating a web presence that provides the information that the "Internet generation," as he calls it, is looking for. His existing clients aren't asking for it, but he's seeing the writing on the wall and planning for the next era of home buyers. Pretty savvy.

The Second Client

The other recent experience I had involved a company who has a long and impressive history in the signage business. This company's marketing and sales staff is heavily focused on selling the company's history. They're also convinced that face-to-face is the key to success. Their focus on these traditional values has made them very successful and will continue to foster deep relationships with their clients.

What about their website, you ask? Well, let's just say if your first impression of the company is limited to their web presence, you'll probably shop around for another vendor. All of this focus on face-to-face interaction with potential and existing customers has trumped any investment in the company's website.

The Writing on the Wall

In both cases mentioned the clients have excellent relationships with their existing customers and have been very successful in their respective businesses. That's certainly not going to change over night but as the Internet-dependent generation eventually gets control of the corporate checkbook, companies in these kinds industries will have to adjust to this new demographic's shopping habits.

Forward-thinking companies like the title company I mentioned will get a head start on establishing an informative and helpful web presence now, even though their survival doesn't yet depend on it.

What do you think? Will the "read-in-online generation" cause problems for old-school companies?