Here's an anecdote that might shed light on this from a different angle. I used to work with some people who really enjoy coffee. We'd take coordinated coffee

Here's an anecdote that might shed light on this from a different angle. I used to work with some people who really enjoy coffee. We'd take coordinated coffee breaks and trek a couple of blocks to the local coffee shop. After going there a couple of times a day for a few weeks I started to have "relationship" with the staff. That was pleasant for a while - they knew my name and drink and I knew their names. But after a while the "relationship" hit a wall. We had exhausted the possibilities for superficial chit-chat, and had to either advance to actual friendship or acknowledge that we weren't going to. But the coffee shop staff wouldn't do either of those things. They can't become after-work friends with all their regular customers - nobody has time for that - and in many cases it could be construed as rude or unprofessional. On the other hand, they couldn't really abandon the "relationship" that they'd work so hard to build in the first place. It became obvious that this wasn't a real relationship, but a deliberate sales strategy. It would have been fine if they had settled for, "Hi Colin, the usual?" and left it at that, but they insisted on asking about my weekend, wishing me a good afternoon etc. That became annoying and I started avoiding the place. The article deals with attempts by large corporations to build customer relationships, but I think the notion that customers don't want relationships applies even at a small scale. Real interpersonal relationships take a bit of work to maintain, and I think customers will avoid that if the relationship provides no value to them.