I bought a suitcase at Target. As the cashier rang me up, she asked me to unzip the case and proceeded to check not only the main compartment, but also each and every zippered pocket, to make sure that I wasn't hiding shoplifted items in the luggage I was buying.
I realize that shoplifting is a very real problem for retailers, that Target is simply protecting its financial interests and, on paper, the "checkout search" seems like a reasonable preventative measure. But as I stood at the register, with the cashier checking my new bag for other, stolen merchandise -- in plain view of other shoppers -- I left pretty uncomfortable. In fact, as I stood there I began to feel like maybe, just maybe, I actually had done something wrong and I would now be found out.
This policy seems like a great deterrent, but at what price? Am I likely to make another large purchases at Target, knowing that I may be subjected to another similar experience? Maybe, but I'd think twice.
But this post isn't really about Target and their anti-shoplifting measures (after all, they've got a business to run and margin to maintain.) This experience got me thinking about all the things we do that seem to serve the needs of our businesses but could have unintended impacts on how our customers feel about our brands.
The sorry truth is that most of us probably do this kind of thing far more often than we realize.
In the real world, it might be the snooty maitre d', a restaurant's "no sharing" policy, the car salesman's frequent trip to "speak with my manager" behind closed doors, the pushy cold caller, the unhelpful customer service rep. It's charging customers who are already paying a fair (or more than fair) price for your services for extras that could be offered at no charge.
In the digital world, it's the onerous registration form, the lag between online inquiry and email (or phone or snail mail) response, the "fancy" web experience with scant payoff, the annoying flash ad that expands to obscure the content that the site visitor is actually trying to read. It's anything that stands between the consumer and the information/content/experience/product they really want.
None of these things seems especially harmful -- we're exclusive, we're just negotiating to make sure we earn a reasonable profit, we're only trying to do something cool, hey we're busy but we'll get to you when we can -- but that doesn't mean our customers will see things the same way. In fact, they probably won't.
It isn't enough to keep our own business needs in mind, consumer be damned. It is our obligation to see each and every action through our customers's eyes and do what we can to make them feel comfortable. Comfortable doing business with our companies, supporting our brands, with the product choices they've made. This new mindset might cause us to rethink some of our current policies and decisions and retooling our efforts may even cost us some money in the near term. But it will help differentiate us from our competition and more than pay for itself over time.
Think about it: who would you rather do business with? A company that makes you feel good about your choice and yourself? Or a company that makes you uncomfortable about those very same things?
