Most businesses aim to please. They put customers first and do whatever it takes to make them happy.
Some companies have found that being unethical and treating customers like garbage is actually better for business. At the very least, it ups their Google ranking.
One company, DecorMyEyes, is downright scary to customers. When one user tried to cancel her order, she received a scathing email. According to the New York Times, DecorMyEyes wrote her: "Listen, b*tch, I know your address. I’m one bridge over.”
Other customers had similar experiences and reported them on review sites.
"!!!!!ROBBERY!!!!" One exclaims.
"Terrible service and a rip off. They must have blind primates doing the work!" says another.
Those are just two of the nicer reviews. While most business owners would be horrified, the DecorMyEyes founder, Stanley Borker, is thrilled. Here's why:
"“Hello, My name is Stanley with DecorMyEyes.com," the founder writes to all the negative commenters on an open forum. "I just wanted to let you guys know that the more replies you people post, the more business and the more hits and sales I get. My goal is NEGATIVE advertisement.”
Negative actions should have negative consequences, but this founder is laughing all the way to the bank thanks to high Google rankings. But surely the world's most powerful search engine, Google, could separate scams like DecorMyEyes from genuine businesses.
Apparently not. The New York Times interviewed one DecorMyEyes customer who stumbled across the site when Googling her favorite glasses brand. DecorMyEyes was the first search suggestion. The New York Times asked Google if they could filter out negative searches but received a non-answer:
"Ultimately, the spokesman sidestepped the question of whether utterly noxious retail could yield profits. The best he could do was decline to call Mr. Borker a liar for saying that it did," they write.
"The customer is always right — not here, you understand?” Borker defends himself to the New York Times. “I hate that phrase — the customer is always right. Why is the merchant always wrong? Can the customer ever be wrong? Is that not possible?”
His strategy is unethical yet slightly brilliant. He's tricking the most powerful company in the world (although Google claims to have fixed the problem now). It is a shock and awe strategy that Google, until recently, wasn't stopping.
Although effective, abusing customers isn't a strategy that's likely to catch on. Constantly fending off unhappy customers is grueling, a major time-suck, and at the very least, it must weigh on your conscience.
For the full article, head over to the New York Times >>
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See Also:
- INSTANT MBA: You're Not Going To Defeat Google, But That Doesn't Mean You Can't Play In The Game
- Google May Have A Ton Of Privacy Issues, But They Make Smart PR Decisions
- Does Your Business Really Need A Google Virtual Storefront?
Making Customers Hate You Makes Google Love You
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