Anti-Customer Behaviour

Why do companies continue to engage in anti-customer behaviour? We’ve all experienced it; the telemarketer that calls you every day; restaurants that don’t accept some credit cards; airport security that doesn’t have a sense of humour; companies that give you loyalty points and then take them away if you don't use them.

How did these behaviours come to be allowed or even considered normal? I don’t do business with such places. I vote with my wallet and feet. I go elsewhere. Airlines and banks have been among the worst offenders in anti-customer behaviour for decades. Haven’t they heard that the customer is always right?

No so long ago, banks were grateful to have our money deposited with them. They gave us free services to entice us to keep our money there. They made their profit by investing it and lending it at a higher interest rate than they paid their depositors. Now, they seem to think it their divine right to nickel and dime their customers for every service. Why do people put up with this? The banks don’t need the pittance they get from doing this. It contributes less than 10% to their profit margin. They make $1B+ profits year after year! On top of that, the point spread between what they pay us on a deposit and what they charge on a loan has increased. How much do they need to take from their customers before we sit up and say, “Enough!”? Don’t even get me started on credit card companies. Why do they think that 20% annual interest rates are acceptable? They’re even higher when compounded monthly or daily.

Airlines have kept the same seat size since the 50’s. The people occupying those seats have increased in size considerably but airlines have done nothing to accommodate this. Consequently, an airplane is absolutely the most uncomfortable way to travel. Airports are usually located in inconvenient places, have expensive parking, long queues, lose luggage and don’t care if they cause you to miss a flight on another airline due to the inability to cope with weather or other problems. Customers have no rights or, certainly, not enough rights.

What kind of business treats it’s customers with such disrespect? What kinds of customers accept such treatment? Doesn’t anyone have any self-respect? People used to protest such bad behaviour. Now, those who protest are arrested and no one seems to care. Witness the reporter in Iraq who threw a shoe at George Bush; arrested for expressing his anger at Bush’s idiocy and arrogance. He had a right to do that in his cultural context but, no, he had to be “controlled”. When will the Bozo’s in power understand that that’s not the role of a democratic government? It’s a kind of anti-customer behaviour where the customers are a country’s citizens and the business is the government.

I’ve never understood why saying the word “bomb” in an innocent context at the airport causes so much concern. It’s not like they are ever actually going to see one. It’s most certainly not a justifiable limitation on freedom of speech, either. It’s a naïve, Draconian, knee-jerk, over-reaction typical of people who just don’t get that they aren’t doing anyone any good with that sort of behaviour. If terrorists, who have no interest in Canada anyway, can change our society in such insidious ways then they’ve won. They’ve proven that you don’t need to blow up anything to curtail freedom of speech and force an entire industry to become even more anti-customer than they already were.

Anti-customer behaviour is not only rude, unprofessional and annoying, it strikes at the very nature of our society – its freedom and its values. The principle that “the customer is always right” needs to be recognised for the citizen/government as well as the customer/corporation relationship now more than ever.