Your customers don’t need you. They have Google.

If all you do is give the same answers to the same questions over and over everyday, your customers don’t need you.
They have Google.

If all you do is email a list of current prices to anyone who asks for them, your customers don’t need you.
They have Google.

If all you do is propose the same solution to every problem that is posed, your customer don’t need you.
They have Google.

Google is better than any human being in the world at providing an existing answer to questions the majority of people ask. As a matter of act, the more people who ask the same question, the better Google gets at delivering the most acceptable and most popular answer.

In the early days of search engines there used to be a game where people tried to stump Google, and then they would share the search terms for which Google could deliver just one or two results (kind of the way people tried to stump Siri on their iPhones). The ability to stump Google hasn’t happened for a very long time.

Not only can Google deliver pages upon pages of possible results, it does it faster than you and during more hours than you’re available, and on more days than you could possible work in your lifetime.  There are more people who know Google than people who know you, and there are more referrals given for Google than could ever be given for you (because more people can use Google than people could ever use you.)

But what Google isn’t very good at is giving new answers to questions.

Google doesn’t think for itself or apply it’s accumulated knowledge and experience toward developing creative responses.  There’s no algorithm for predicting or producing original ideas. There’s no automation for originality. No javascript or HTML code for creativity.

What your customers do need from you is your ability to apply the features and benefits of your service or product to their unique situation.  The more specific and custom and personal you can be in your solution to their problem, the more valuable you become.  Your clients don’t need (nor would know what to do with!) 100,000 possible results or responses to their question.  They need just two or three ideas from an expert like you, from someone with experience like you, who can help a business like theirs.

That’s what your customer needs from you, because they can’t get it from Google.
At least not yet.

Incidentally, it’s also what your boss needs from you too.

The employees who have automatic answers to automatic questions are being replaced with automation. Web pages, auto-responders, text messages, automated call centers, outsourced online chat, and online ordering systems can quote standard prices and take standard orders.

There is a great book out there written by Jeff Jarvis called “What would Google do?” (which I heartily recommend), but what I also recommend is defining your unique opportunity to deliver the most value to your clients by thinking about what Google “couldn’t” do.

And then go do that.

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