I don’t know about the rest of you but lately I have been overwhelmed and shocked by the actions of brands. It’s like everyday I am on a bad first date with a Casanova that promises me the world and inevitably I fall for it because unlike love, I need a body wash or a courier service or to be able to have cell service. Will they be there if something goes wrong? Will they care about me post purchase? As you may have guessed or experienced yourself, no. Or, not often.

I am trying to wrap my mind around what makes marketers completely forget about their consumer self when they walk through the workplace doors. They simply aren’t doing the right thing. Maybe it’s too much to ask that they hold up to the adage, “the customer is always right”, or maybe the right thing is lost in efforts to scale, optimize and automate. It’s not just enough to get the sale; shouldn’t we be there for people during and after they have used our products just as we have pre-purchase?

I think it’s time that things shift toward customer satisfaction and service even in the digital space. Whether you’re the telecommunications company that refuses to refund a customer 3gb of data due to a voucher supply issue or you’re a supermarket that won’t exchange spoiled organic produce once it’s left the store, things need to change.

“Doing the right thing is the right thing. These are customers. These are people that are advocates. These are people that give a crap about what you or your business do and we do not treat them with the respect and the gratitude and empathy that they deserve and thus our actions in marketing don’t reflect that and we leave enormous amounts of long-term brand building value on the table in exchange for short-term sales tactics.” – Gary Vaynerchuk, DAILYVEE 097