THE RISE OF THE PROSUMER
In January 1978 a thirty-year-old government worker in Washington, D.C., heard strange noises emanating from his refrigerator. The customary thing to do in the past was to call in a mechanic and pay him to fix it. Given the high cost and (he difficulty of getting a repairman at a convenient hour, Barry Nussbaum read the instructions that came with his refrigerator. On it he discovered an 800 telephone number that he could use to call the manufacturer— Whirlpool Corporation of Benton Harbor, Michigan—free of charge.
This was the “Cool-Line” set up by Whirlpool to help customers with service problems. Nussbaum called. The man at the other end then “talked him through” a repair, explaining to Nussbaum exactly which bolts to remove, which sounds to listen for and—later—what part would be needed. “That guy,” says Nussbaum, “was super-helpful. He not only knew what I needed to do, he was a great confidence builder.” The refrigerator was fixed in no time.
Whirlpool has a bank of nine full-time and several part-time advisers, some of them former service field men, who wear headsets and take such calls. A screen in front of them Instantly displays for them a diagram of whatever product is Involved (Whirlpool makes freezers, dishwashers, air-conditioners, and other appliances in addition to refrigerators) and permits them to guide the customer. In 1978 alone Whirlpool lumdled 150,000 such calls.
The Cool-Line is a rudimentary model for a future system of maintenance that permits the homeowner to do much of what a paid outside mechanic or specialist once did. Made possible by advances that have driven down the cost of longdistance telephoning, it suggests future systems that might ac-I Inally display step-by-step fix-it-yourself instructions on the home television screen as the adviser speaks. The spread of mich systems would reserve the repair mechanic only for major tasks, or turn the mechanic (like the doctor or social worker) into a teacher, guide, and guru for prosumers.
What we see is a pattern that cuts across many indus-iiirs—increasing externalization, increasing involvement of I ili«v consumer in tasksonce done for her or him by others— nnd once again, therefore, a transfer of activity from Sector It of the economy to Sector A, from the exchange sector to iln’ prosumption sector.
All of this pales by comparison with what we see when we
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