In my previous post, I spoke of my disillusionment about how companies have been operating online. In this post, I’ll expand on this topic so I can provide concrete examples of how my experience has led me to focus my efforts toward meaningful change.

Throughout my career, I’ve had moments where a company’s choices did not align with what I would personally appreciate as a client or a customer. In these instances, I’ve tolerated these choices as normal business behavior. But the more strategic I became, the more egregious some of these practices began to seem — at times, even at cross-purposes to the company’s long-term success. My perplexed response is especially heightened by my professional understanding of how these choices can affect the long-term brand sentiment of a company.

Churn & Burned Out

One example is an experience I shared back in 2020 which sticks to me to this day. After downloading some keyword research for a client, I was immediately called and sent an email from a salesperson who hadn’t even bothered to spell my name correctly. The interaction with him left me with such a negative impression of the company, that I vowed never to visit their website again — and I haven’t. As an owner of a company, let alone a marketer, this is exactly the opposite impression I would want any customer to have after interacting with an employee of my company. [While writing this post, I checked in on updates about the company and saw they have since been acquired. Perhaps acquisition was the goal and the company was desperate to boost its numbers at the time. However, the acquiring company did not change the name of the tool — so essentially, they bought this negative brand sentiment. It makes me curious about how it’s performing for them.]

Instead of a cautionary tale, It seems that this aggressive behavior is simply becoming more and more commonplace. The rise of prospecting automation has made it nearly impossible for more thoughtful one-to-one emails to get through. Most people I know can’t stand to get emails uninvited. It’s called Spam for a reason, so I don’t know why it’s become so commonplace in the business world. Unfortunately, I’ve gotten so acclimated to these automated pitches that I naturally assume that any email I get from an unfamiliar name is automated and I mostly ignore them. That’s what happens when everyone jumps on the same trend. In the internet age, trends cycle much more quickly. As soon as you jump on a trend that someone claims to be successful, it’s probably already near the end of that success cycle.

Deceptive Pricing Strategies

Then there’s the example of a recent experience with a stock photo company, where I specifically chose to purchase an image with credits instead of a subscription. However, the company’s overly busy website caused me to miss the checkbox that defaults to a monthly credit allotment for a recurring charge. Isn’t that what you call a subscription? So the next month, I wasted some precious time trying to get my money back on a charge I should never have received. I am sure from a financial perspective, it seems like a winning strategy. But is that how you would like to be treated as a customer? Do you think anyone who is tricked out of some money will buy from you again? Even if they’ve done the analysis that proves me wrong, I can’t imagine this business surviving much longer. And I certainly don’t want to do business with a company that brazenly prioritizes their profit gain over my profit loss. I’m of the mind that every commerce exchange should be treated as an equal partnership, so taking advantage of that partnership is not healthy for either of us.

Removing Live Support Erodes Trust

As more and more companies are putting up barriers to talking to a live customer service agent, the frustration and feelings of powerlessness have grown. Last summer, I purchased a ticket using Lufthnasa’s website and was thrown a website error which caused me to accidentally purchase a duplicate ticket at $2,500 each. The only recourse I had to get a refund was to enter my information into a form and wait. I had no idea if I would ever see that money again and had to dispute it with my credit card company. In the meantime, I had to reschedule my flight because I was worried I wouldn’t get the refund. That extra money that was tied up was the expense portion of my trip. I did finally get a refund after the initial flight had taken off. But that was 3 months after purchasing the ticket — and filing multiple complaints. Just this single experience has been poor enough to guarantee that I will never trust my money with Lufthansa ever again.

I have had numerous other interactions with robots that simply added resistance to getting a resolution from a live agent. It appears these solutions are more about saving the company money and less about making it more convenient for customers to get help. Am I just being nostalgic for the good ol’ days that never existed? I know I have been equally frustrated with the horrible customer service that can happen in physical stores too. Especially stores that don’t hire enough staff or don’t pay their clerks enough money to care.

But better days did exist. My nostalgia, when I dig into it, comes from the feeling I used to get when I visited places like my favorite NYC corner deli, where the owners always expressed genuine delight to see me. If you haven’t experienced the joy of purchasing from someone who greets you with such warmth every time you walk into their store, I wish it for you. There’s no better feeling than to be recognized and valued as a customer. This is what I long to feel in this age of growing impersonal automation, which feels as coldly transactional as it gets. How will businesses compete when it’s simply one automation vs. another?

Intrusive Data Collection

Then there is the tricky area of data collection and customer targeting. As a marketer, I will admit I have contradictory feelings about this. On one hand, I have found a lot of value in the ability to target my customers with more specificity and relevant messaging. It’s more efficient to target relevant buyers, especially across a noisy platform like Facebook. But as a consumer, the data intrusion is alarming and frankly, I don’t see most brands using this information effectively. Occasionally I’ll discover something that seems positively targeted to me, but after getting burned a few times by illegitimate sites, the trust factor has waned.

I’m much more inclined to buy from a brand when there are a certain amount of word-of-mouth reviews from real people I trust. I’m budget-conscious so the price does factor into all of my decisions, but trust usually wins out.. In my experience, it’s far more costly to be swindled by a company than to pay a few extra dollars with a company I trust. I’d hazard to guess that as we become more internet literate and the hazards of deep fakes become more prominent, trust will be the #1 driving force in purchase behavior for the majority of people.

I’ve been delighted to see a decentralized social network finally starting to take shape. As I’ve become more personally invested in that, I’m also rethinking my obsession with marketing data. Whereas I think it’s essential to understand where you are advertising to make sure your advertising is being seen by a real and targeted audience, I see how vanity numbers are so easily faked and manipulated. I am also a supporter of a diverse media ecosystem that supports a wide range of voices and more in-depth conversations. A diverse and healthy ecosystem is essential to ensuring diversity and health in our society, including the businesses and organizations that feed into it.

This is no different than how the natural world operates and thrives. In an article about the portability of the Podcast model, Anil Dash writes:

“The inefficiency of old media formats resulted in less surveillance of the purchasing and behavioral habits of individuals, and larger surpluses that sustained a healthier, more vibrant media ecosystem that could even afford to invest in important stories or content despite the fact that they might not have a large audience.”

Should we change the way we use data for advertising? I know the EU is trying to enforce protections on their citizens, even as many complain about the bureaucracy of such enforcement. I think some restrictions must be put in place, but how much or how little is still up for debate. I have not made up my mind about where I draw the line yet, but it’s something I’m seriously mulling over.

Customers: Friend or Foe?

As businesses have grown more accustomed to viewing their customers through the lens of data, the adversarial relationship this creates has taken root across the customer experience. To a certain extent, this has been the status quo between customers and large corporations for some time. Especially when there is a lack of competition. Employees have had to take the brunt of a customer’s frustration when the customer feels a lack of control in an unfair bargain. If the employee has the power to act on behalf of the company, issues have the potential to be resolved. But now that people are increasingly being replaced by machines, customers can find themselves completely powerless with absolutely no recourse.

The customer is not always right of course. The adversarial relationship goes both ways. As the customer has grown accustomed to being treated a certain way, their behavior has adjusted accordingly. What I’d like to ask is why are we here at all. Why has this unhealthy relationship between the buyer and the seller gotten to this point? Why are we all letting it evolve toward more layers of disconnection? Is the price of efficiency worth so much? As a marketer, I can no longer be complicit with this approach. I want to raise my hand to point toward an alternative path.

Small businesses are the lifeblood of our nation and we need to not only protect these types of businesses but also prioritize them — instead of bleeding them dry like we are doing today. It is the small business that keeps the spirit of our communities intact. Often, it’s the small business that can offer the kinds of deals or bargains that can create some semblance of balance in the buyer-seller relationship.There is more likelihood in this process to have human-to-human contact and a feeling of mutual value in the relationship.

The efficiencies that technology offers need to empower these businesses more than eliminate them in favor of a behemoth organization. We’ve seen time and time again what happens when organizations become so large. What was once efficient quickly becomes inefficient as layers and layers of bureaucracy develop. I don’t see machines changing this much at all. Even though some idealize this approach.

Marketing Priorities

Regardless of whether we invest in protecting and expanding small businesses, I want to prioritize marketing that creates a healthy ecosystem between buyer and seller. This may seem idealistic and out of touch with the current state of affairs, but I’ve always been somewhat heretical. When everyone is drinking the suicide Kool-Aid and you notice a shared sentiment among so many who are thirsty for something life-sustaining, it points to an opportunity.

Customers have a bottom line too. Keeping or strengthening the tenuous current customer relationship will demand that marketing activities satisfy some basic tenets. As marketers and consumers, we must manifest the following:

Sustainable growth — Driven by core loyal enthusiasts — business models driven by the craze of VC investment have driven a compulsion for scale at all costs. I’ve observed founders talking about how retention numbers hardly matter to investors who prioritize scale over anything else. This works for 1% of the businesses out there and then they become so big, they stop serving their core customers. The people who benefit from this ecosystem are the few at the expense of the many who feed into this ecosystem.

Permission-based — The amount of noise in our daily lives seems to have increased the desperation of companies trying to get the attention of potential buyers. But to what effect? Risking your company’s brand equity for such a minuscule number of random responders seems like a faulty business strategy to me. You are much more likely to succeed when you respect a person’s boundaries and allow them to become curious about you. I often feel so much more cemented with a business that has a double opt-in requirement.

Human-to-human connections — People are hungry for more human connections, not less. The more we prioritize this, the more likely we will stand out in our efforts to attract a loyal customer base.

Community engagement — This is not my core competency, but I see how important it is to prioritize this for a healthy ecosystem. This all depends on the business, obviously, but a trend I’m starting to see is communities and event leaders who prioritize impactful heart-centered connections. It’s best when it’s a mix of live vs. online. Most importantly, I believe giving back to the local community is the responsibility of a company that does business in that community.

Fostering diversity — This has become a polarized topic, but the fact of the matter is that our country is diverse. We have an opportunity to optimize our communities by tapping into that diversity. Diversity is a strength, not an impediment. Nurturing curiosity and respect for diversity is important.

Writing more consistently about marketing these past few weeks has been an enlightening experience. In real-time, I faced my internal resistance to marketing practices — resistance that’s been growing within me for some time, including some deep insecurities around my inability to just follow the formula like everyone else seemed to be doing. “If I couldn’t follow the formula, who would hire me?” I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know that I can’t keep traveling down a path that no longer feels authentic to who I am and where I want to go. I know I’m not alone. If you’re hungry for change as well, let me know. I bet together, we can build something far more enriching.