Ethical Standards Governing Customer / Beneficiary Relationship Policy

The Menace:

There are huge and successful businesses ,that utilize their position for exploiting, may be intentionally or unintentionally, the very customers who lent strength to their product / service portfolio by adopting them. As our analysis will reveal that such companies often fall short of  the necessary will for enforcing implementation of stringent governance models.  Once these companies achieve scale, they start following unfair practices, or the fair practices are deliberately ignored, thereby undermining the interests of the very customers who provide the basic reason for the existence of these companies. The exploitation of customers at the hand of these companies happens in many ways and customer awareness is the only way to assert the rights of customer groups affected by this menace. The companies acquire customers because of one or more of these reasons including:

• Attractive Promotions
• Innovative Products 
• Lack of Customer Awareness Regarding Competitive Substitutes

Black Mail by Brands : 

These insensitive brands tend to play the blackmail game. As a customer you get into their trap by adopting their products or services. For some time you get hooked to these products or services and build some sort of dependence on them. Then comes a time when you have to pay for trusting these companies, as they demand ransom from you for your dependence on the products or services of these companies. This happens only because you trusted them.  With the latest trends and upcoming developments in the market, the time is never too far off where death bells start ringing for these companies in the form of open market sources leading to perfect competition, offering variety of competitive substitute options to the customers. The only gap that these companies tend to bank upon is the lack of customer awareness. Many big brands are also guilty of this crime. Without naming any specific brand , we can vouch for these brands and their unfair customer exploitation practices in a variety of markets. This may be due to an overpowering element of vested interests or personal greed of the promoters and key decision makers / stakeholders. This acts as a blind spot, characterized by sinking element of humanity, depleting values and disproportionate emphasis on business interest over and above the commitment towards building and promoting ethical standards governing customer relationship policy.

Locking In Customers: 

The promotional campaigns lure the customers into buying products and services of these companies. Then the real exploitation starts. A word of caution for customers is that on the first experience where they notice this arm twisting attitude of brands. The customers must take a decision regarding whether they wish to continue getting exploited by these brands as against available ethical alternatives, may be with lesser features. Giving time and opportunity to the companies with lesser resources but higher ethical standards is a worthwhile investment into the future.   

Food For Thought For Entrepreneurs/ Stakeholders:

The sudden spike in business may look good but may not be healthy considering long term prospects of your business if this spike is a result of the compromised ethical standards governing customer relationship policy of your business. A quick review of  critical factors can shed some light on the actual state of affairs in your business. These are also equally applicable to the government welfare schemes and public policy matters. Answers to the below questions offer deep insights for developing an effective governance model for effective customer / beneficiary relationship policy:

1. Does your business/department website have a dedicated page or section regarding customer complaints, feedback, reviews and grievance redressal mechanism?
2. Do you provide a healthy exit option to your customers / beneficiaries without subjecting them to or minimizing their related financial or qualitative losses?
3. Do you have a well defined customer relationship document detailing mandatory ethical standards that must be followed as a default policy?
4. Do you have implementation of customer relationship policy standards as an integral KPI for all positions and levels in your organization?
5. Do you have a well defined escalation matrix for ensuring timely, transparent and effective capturing and management of all customer grievances involving implementation of standards defined under customer relationship policy governance ?

Listening to your customers/ beneficiaries may save you millions by providing you insights into the changing market preferences. The millions are saved not because you hit an immediate jackpot but by the way of savings on the cost of expensive market research activity that you would have undertaken to learn similar facts and that too with a substantial time lag. Last but not the least is the impact that you achieve by empowering your business to accomplish sustainable results thus are produced as a consequence of following ethical standards contained in your customer / beneficiary relationship governance policy.

Withstanding Cyclical Nature of Business:

The entrepreneurs / stakeholders / key decision makers must not forget the cyclical nature of business. The permanence of any business, product or system is illusionary. The longevity of any business , product or system is consequent upon the element of truth as its core constituent. The long term business sustenance and growth can only be ensured by following ethical standards in dealing with and defining your customer policy. Being fair with your customers is at the core of building the base of healthy relationship towards long term customer loyalty. Unethical practices such as locking in customers and resorting to customer blackmail are the practices that guarantee business extinction in the long run. Such unethical practices can bring in temporary spike for the business but if these unethical practices go unchecked for long spells of time they can spell doom for the business enterprise in the long run.

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