Because of the business enlightenment in the last decade or so one would think that shady marketing tactics would be dead in most industries. They should be.

I know they’re not  because today I experienced my own rip-off run-in. The two offenders were American Home Mortgage and a company called TotalProtect. Their scheme was to mail small-amount checks that, if cashed, would start an ongoing $32/month subscription. Unfortunately the skanky play was not caught at the time in the Hoyt household, and we’ve been paying the bill (as a disguised add-on to our mortgage payment) since June.            

Frankly, if I didn’t know better I’d be shocked that companies still pursue these self-defeating strategies. Besides the usual reasons why any type of ethically questionable customer engagement is bad business, it’s more dangerous today than ever because of the advent of social media and its facilitation of a growing breadth of online communication and knowledge sharing.

An irritated customer wields far greater power now than they did even just a couple of years ago. I’m writing about my poor experience here on this blog. And at the time, I shared it on Twitter.

Customers not only possess greater power now, they can also wield it more quickly and in greater numbers. With a few keystrokes we can easily find each other and gather momentum as a group.  

If you’re not convinced, just ask the White House. After learning that one of the proposed State of the Union dates conflicted with the season premiere of the ABC television show Lost, fans staged a quick rebellion, bombarding Twitter with protests and banding together on Facebook as “Americans Against the State of the Union on the Same Night as LOST.” Within 24 hours of announcing the proposed dates, the President’s Communication Director felt it necessary to issue a statement reassuring fans that the State of the Union would not conflict with the season premiere of the show.

Does your business have any practices that might make some customers feel taken advantage of or mislead (whether you intend to or not)? If so, how will you restructure them to be customer centric?