The Dark Side of Customer Focus, CRM, and Customer Experience

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What is the cost of putting profits before customer interests?
This week one of the UK’s largest insurance brokers got hit with a £7.4m fine. Why? This is what Tracey McDermott, the FCA’s director of enforcement and financial crime, is reported to have said:
 

 
Swinton failed its customers. When selling monthly add-on policies, Swinton did not place the consumer at the heart of its business. Instead it prioritised profit
 
At the FCA we have been clear in our expectation that firms must behave in the interests of consumers. Today’s outcome shows our approach in action and will act as a deterrent for other firms tempted to put profit figures above the fair treatment of customers.
 
The Dark Side of Customer Experience
Is Swinton the only organisation where people in the business put revenue and profits ahead of treating customers fairly?Not according to Monique Reece:
 
The dark side of customer experience is the way in which some companies take advantage of their most loyal customers. For example, if you are a loyal cable subscriber, you may very well be paying more for your service than a new customer who just got a deal for switching carriers. Or if you are a magazine subscriber, you might asked to renew your subscription at a much higher price than if you just let the subscription lapse and subscribed as a new customer.
 
Dark patterns: carefully crafted user interfaces that trick users 
Is the limit of the dark arts that companies use to fleece customers?  Here’s what Michael Hinshaw says in a recent post of his:
 
According to darkpatterns.org, a dark pattern is “a type of user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things.”  Put another way, firms that employ dark patterns trick their customers into buying/signing up for things they almost certainly don’t want.
 
It can be as egregious as getting rental car customers to buy insurance they don’t want or need, or signing up for recurring shipments, billed monthly, when all they want is a single purchase…..You get the drift. Dark patterns get customers to do things they wouldn’t typically choose to do, if they were presented the options in a straightforward manner.
 
What does Michael Hinshaw recommend?  He recommends finding the source of these “bad profits” and taking the necessary action:
 
So, ask yourself: does your company ever try to “trick” your customers? If the answer is yes, put up your hand and “out” the practice, pushing your firm to do something, well, better. There’s always an alternative to using dark patterns.
 
Is customer focus the antidote to these dark practices?
Time and again I have called attention to the ‘extraction’ context that lies hidden underneath the content of customer relationships, CRM, customer focus, customer experience, and customer-centricity.  And it has occurred to me that I have been a lone voice spoiling the customer love fest. Not anymore.
 
I share with you selected passages from Bruce Kasanoff’s latest post which shows up for me as being the best post I have ever read when it comes to customer focus and/or customer-centric business:
 
The vast majority of “customer-focused” initiatives reek of a taker mindset.…. They do not think of customers’ interests first. They do not give major new benefits or services to customers. They seek to take more money out of people’s wallets.
 
In short, these initiatives were designed by takers, and if you are a giver it is enormously frustrating to deal with the hypocrisy that surrounds you: your company says it wants to help customers, but its policies and procedures are designed to take from customers, not give to them.
 
The taking mentality creates systems that make it so hard for customers to stand up for themselves that it’s easy for companies to “legally” lie, cheat and steal from them.
 
Putting takers in charge of customer experience is like asking a bear to guard your honey.
 
If you really, truly want to grow your company faster than your competitors, hire, promote and empower givers.
 
Givers are people who think of other people before they think of themselves. They are the people who should be designing and running customer-focused initiatives. They are the folks who have the vision and ability to grow revenues, because they are focused on the needs of others.
 
As I have said before, an authentic shift towards customer-centric business requires a genuine shift in consciousness. A shift from a “You OR Me” context to a “You AND Me” context. A shift from shareholder capitalism to conscious (stakeholder) capitalism. A shift from maximising short-term profits (at the expense of people and planets) to maximising long term wellbeing for all. A shift from calculating mind towards a generous heart. A shift from taking-keeping-excluding to giving-sharing-including.
 
What do you say?