Tweet

Garber on Business: How to lose customers through sheer stupidity

Written by: Anne Garber

Article Overview: Canadian communications companies are fumbling the ball when it comes to 'upselling' existing individual customers. The reason? Too many catches, and a basic dishonesty when it comes to ease of cancellation, should things not work out as planned.

Garber on Business: How to lose customers through sheer stupidity

Here's a corporate idea: We'll advance our "small potatoes" customer base by offering existing clients something wonderful for "almost free." And then -- when it doesn't work -- we'll make it really difficult for the consumer to cancel the product they didn't really want in the first place.

Sounds insane, right? Well, this is precisely what both Shaw Cable and Telus phone services are doing right now!

Here's another shot at the little guy, consumers like you or me: You're sitting at home, minding your own business, and a "service representative" from one of these "connectivity" companies calls you to ask if you're happy with your current service from them. You think for a beat and say, "Sure, I guess…" Next, your friendly neighbourhood service rep suggests you might like to expand your commitment to them. In the case of Telus, it's a free offer; you'll be able to receive your Telus high-speed internet service at a MUCH higher speed. . .for free. You ask all the pertinent questions, such as "Really? No extra cost?" and "Will I have to be home for a service installation?" and "I can cancel if I don't like it?" Everything seems to point to a genuine, free deal, until the service is "switched over," and you discover you have neither internet nor phone service AT ALL!

Oops! Well, it seems Telus will have to send a technical support guy over to install a new box, but don't worry, it won't cost anything, except (whoops, again) you will have to wait home all day on a designated day (a few days away), and (uh-oh) you'll have no internet service or land-line telephone until then. So you remember the offer to cancel if you don't like it, but -- guess what? -- like taking lithium, it's a one-way street. Now that they've switched you over, you cannot go back. Your only recourse is to switch providers (which I did). Nothing emphasizes the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" cliché like personal experience, n'est-ce pas?

Now, moving on to Shaw, I was sitting in the living room one evening recently, when my husband answered a call from Shaw about adding 25 free, new, digital channels to our existing cable TV service. Listening to his end of the conversation, I could tell that this "free" offer actually would cost $2.95 (monthly) for rental of the new digital box, but otherwise, it sounded pretty painless. My husband asked all the right questions (such as: "Really? No extra cost?" and "Will I have to be home for a service installation?" and "I can cancel if I don't like it?") Easy-peasy, right? So a few days later, the unit arrives by messenger; we don't even have to sign for it; and my husband spends 90 minutes on the telephone with Shaw support to get the thing working. And -- you guessed it -- another service we have (our Slingbox unit) turns out to be incompatible with the new digital box. (By the way, we did ask if it would work with our Slingbox before we ever said yes!) By this point, my husband is so fed-up and annoyed at all the time and trouble this new unit had cost us (for "free"), that he decided to heck with it, he didn't want it anymore. So we call Shaw back, wait through the necessary telephone-loop-hell and find out that the only way we can return the unit is to drive it downtown -- a daytime trip we have been studiously avoiding since the RAV line construction began almost two years ago.

Long story short, we put about six hours total into this new, "free" deal from Shaw, and both of us ended up spending the rest of the day trying to bring our respective blood pressure down -- after an exasperating and completely unnecessary ordeal.

So the moral is . . . several axioms and clichés to keep in mind:

* There's no such thing as a free lunch;
* If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is;
* If it ain't broke, don't fix it;
* There's a sucker born every minute;
and not the least:
* Big companies actually do not value the business of the "Little Guy," no matter how persuasive their advertising might suggest to the contrary!

These "upsells" are proof-positive that desperate times call for desperate measures, but there's no reason for individual consumers to get sucked-in to freebies that are anything-but! Shame on these big communications corporations for making their hapless customer service people into phoney pitch-men.

Related Articles
  Avoiding the dis-empowerment traps
  100 Ways to Succeed #90
  LETTING STUPIDITY GET IN THE WAY OF GOOD PUBLIC RELATIONS
  The Power of Admitting Mistakes
  Let’s not let the status quo sink society

Article Tags: corporate idea, current service, customer base, high speed internet, high speed internet service, line telephone, lithium, neighbourhood, own business, personal experience, pertinent questions, recourse, service rep, service representative, shaw cable, small potatoes, speed internet service, telus high speed, telus high speed internet, whoops



Related Forum Posts
Can you tell me about 80/20 Sales Rule? - I’ve a situation like this. I get 80% of my business from 20% of my customers, shouldn't I work harder on the 20%? Communicate at least 4 times a year? Special offers/vip sales? Unexpected free gifts? And if the other rule says I'm going to lose 20% of my customers every year (hopefully through no fault of my own), won't some of them my from my treasured 20% list? Maybe I should work to move some of the 80% to the 20% so I can afford the loss?
The 80/20 Rule - If the rule says I should get 80% of my business from 20% of my customers, shouldn't I work harder on the 20%? Communicate at least 4 times a year? Special offers/vip sales? Unexpected free gifts? And if the other rule says I'm going to lose 20% of my customers every year (hopefully through no fault of my own), won't some of them my from my treasured 20% list? Maybe I should work to move some of the 80% to the 20% so I can afford the loss?
Re: Great start, but no finish - My advise is FOCUS on your business. Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy. Concept is simple. 1- Have a good idea; 2- Build your business on it; 3- Monetize your business; 4- Promote it; 5- Build list of responsive customers; 6- Maintain You Business. Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW. Orxan
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: One company/person's disaster is an author's goldmine... - [quote="OmnivoreInk":321rvgxj]I cann[i:321rvgxj]ot[/i:321rvgxj] believe that American Airlines is in the trouble its in - neglecting maintenance checks is just inexcusable. But, this is probably going to be a boon for somebody.... anyone want to bet there are not at least 3 authors out there writing books about this epic disaster right now? Then of course whenever a young celebrity dies.... the biographies start popping out of the woodwork.[/quote:321rvgxj] Hi Barbara, Yeah, it's pretty scary stuff to know that a business could be so negligent with the lives of its customers and own staff. Even though they're trying to fix the problem now, I think they're going to lose many of their customers for life (their brand value is greatly diminished). I'm going to stick to flying Air Canada for now.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Induction – your first management job

Time management for DIY PR

Soda Vending Machine = Energy Hog

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.