{"id":2410,"date":"2012-03-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bp.rajeshkurikayar.co.uk\/?p=2410"},"modified":"2019-11-22T08:18:33","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T13:18:33","slug":"when-household-names-lie-and-cheat-and-customer-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/when-household-names-lie-and-cheat-and-customer-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"When household names lie and cheat and the Customer Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I am not sure if it is because I am getting old<\/span> that I am becoming increasingly disillusioned with the way some companies behave. Unfortunately I have a number of example<\/span>. Everyone would know the first, the \u2018News of the World\u2019 and the way they broke the law as a matter of course with the phone hacking of people mobile phones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Secondly we all know of the banks antics that have resulted in the financial crisis we are experiencing today. As if this wasn\u2019t enough many of the same banks in the UK are now being forced to set aside \u00a3$ millions to pay back to Customer as they have mis-sold insurances policies to their Customers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In fact the UK Banks are to invite up to 12 MILLION customers to claim compensation over mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI)<\/a>! . This is just incredible and really makes you wonder about their management and what motivates them.<\/p>\n

But fundamentally it makes me concerned about what is happening to the integrity of some businesses?<\/p>\n

Another example comes from the once darling of Social media, Groupon. Let me provide the background first by referring to their own blog. When you read these extracts from a Groupon blog about the \u2018Groupon Promise<\/a>\u2019 dated 10th February 2010: it makes a lot of sense and as I read it I think \u2018this is a Customer Centric company\u2019. They are saying all the right things, for example\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cAs most companies get bigger, they introduce frustrating policies that show less trust in their customers. They hide undesirable policies behind legal jargon and set up endless obstacles to reach customer service. Customers are forced to subvert those policies to get what they need. We never want to be at war with our customers, so we\u2019re taking it in the other direction. More freedom for our customers. More trust. <\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve earned that [Customers] trust by strictly adhering to rules we set for choosing our merchant partners. Now, that last paragraph is usually the type of empty marketing BS that I loathe about companies, because anyone can get away with claiming it. Words mean nothing unless they\u2019re backed up by action. <\/em><\/p>\n

We believe that when a customer has a bad experience, companies pay for it sooner or later. <\/em><\/p>\n

Contrast this with the recent report on the BBC from the UK\u2019s regulator Office of Fair Trading (OFT) who \u201cfound widespread examples of breaches of consumer protection rules including pricing, advertising, refunds, unfair terms, and the diligence of its interactions with merchants”.<\/p>\n

The BBC go on to report that the Office of Fair Trading have told Groupon they have 3 months to get their act together<\/a>. Subsequently, Groupon have agreed to the following undertakings:<\/p>\n