Retailers and Manufacturers: I'm Not Your Cash Cow -- Don't Try to Milk Me

Mama Liberty at The Price of Liberty has published my latest essay, titled Mexican Medicine: A Freer Market at Work. It's a very spare account of my dip below the border last month to get some medicines to help with my chronic sinusitis; the primary aim of the piece is to dispel some myths regarding the quality of goods and services one can get in Mexico.

Looking back on our trip, I find myself wishing more American retailers conducted business the way all the Mexican stores we visited did. That is to say, I wish they'd simply transact business, then leave me the hell alone.

While in Mexico, we enjoyed lattes ... purchased some meds ... had a nice lunch ... and purchased some liquor and snacks. At each place, we were served promptly and courteously; our questions were politely and helpfully answered; and the people with whom we transacted business seemed genuinely happy to have our business. Perhaps best of all, no one asked me for my zip code; no one assailed me with questions of who recommended me or why I chose their business. We simply did business and parted ways. [There were "security guards" in the pharmacy -- an understandable precaution given the huge amount of money it must bring in each day. (And I'd be surprised if there were more than five live rounds of ammunition among all the guards in the place -- Mexican security tends to rely on a good show, as a preventative measure, rather than giving men lots of body-smashing equipment and carte blanche to use it.)]

Contrast this with the shopping experience one increasingly has in the U.S. Most of us probably assume that cameras we see in stores are for security; however, some are there to gather shopper information. Did you hear about the Washington state fireman whose Safeway shopper card purchase history was pored over by LEOs, in order to accuse him (wrongfully, it turns out) of arson? (That whole story, with references, is well-presented at Computer Bytes Man, a web site by fellow CASPIAN staffer Richard M Smith.) That fireman's experience is increasingly typical, as "loyalty" card information is combed through by LEOs during crime investigations and the like. Do you know what CRM is? What about CEM? Here's a sample of what CRM -- Customer Relationship Management -- is about, from CRMguru.com (the audience is retailers):

"This is the real reason you invest in CRM: You want to milk your best customers for all the money they can spend with your category. Every trick is allowed, even data-mining your customer base to predict the next best product and then matter-of-factly dropping it as a recommendation in a customer service conversation. .... CRM strategy and tools can help you remember who your customer is (data) and remind your customer who you are (communications) in a virtuous circle where you can make your customer say, 'Now, they really know me!'"

CRM relies heavily on data-mining, including finding relationships among individuals in their databases. You read that right ... if you're discovered to be a relative or friend of someone who has a poor record at a store, you'll likely not get offered the best deals from that store. Who could have predicted that "guilt by association" would become an integral part of the shopping experience?!

But wait, it gets better. Here's another quote from a recent CRMguru article, hyping Customer Experience Management (CEM) [all emphasis mine]:

Now that CRM as a philosophy and strategy is becoming embedded in the corporate world, technology is beginning to gain a place of paramount importance for CRM. As the newly empowered customer demands an increasingly personalized experience, the amount of data necessary to do that increases proportionately. .... The customer experience is finally being recognized for its business significance. This is an evolutionary step beyond looking at business or customer analytics ... being used to establish a personalized experience. CEM looks at the gamut of emotional and rational characteristics that are necessary to enrich the single customer or segment's experience. The purpose is not just to provide good products and services .... It is a look at the complex matrix of sensate experiences that a customer needs, not to be somewhat satisfied, but to become a brand advocate.

A relatively new marketing industry has sprung up, and insinuated itself between customers, manufacturers, and retailers. It gathers huge amounts of information from us -- sometimes overtly and with our consensual cooperation, but increasingly covertly, without customers' knowledge that the information is being gathered, much less how it's used -- in order to find ways to get us to spend more of our money. We're led to believe that much of the data harvested is aggregated -- combined with other individuals' data so that specific people can't be identified. Well, if that's true, how can I accurately be linked to my friends? How can a store or web site custom-tailor messages to me (or my "segment") if it doesn't have records of my: demographic information; prior purchases, exchanges, and returns; other interests (culled from those "warranty" cards or web browsing analyses); and feedback given to a manufacturer and/or retailer?

As if that isn't offensive enough, consider that the author of the first-quoted CRMguru piece above is trying to lay the responsibility for all this datamining at the customers' feet! Did you ever ask to have your purchases recorded in a database so that the cops could sniff through it on whatever pretext they create, or so your purchase history can be sold to other marketers and retailers? Do you like it when you buy clothing at a store, and after the register beeps and burbles and spits out your card, the clerk loudly announces, "Oh, [insert your first name here], our records show that last time you bought [Item X], it was [Smaller Size Y]. Are you sure you got the right size?" I feel less like a valued customer after most shopping trips, and more like I'm viewed as a cash cow that marketers and retailers are trying to milk far beyond my willingness to produce.

Maybe I'm well on my way to dotage, but with one exception (which I'll note in a moment), I don't want a "personalized shopping experience". I want to enter a clean, well-organized store (whether physical or virtual), find what I need -- with helpful assistance from a clerk if necessary, make my purchase, and leave. The only exception I can think of to this is when I'm dining out. Part of a good dining experience relies on personalized attention; thus I expect the waitstaff to remember when refilling my coffee whether or not I take cream, and to remember to bring additional items my party may have requested with our meals. If I become a regular at a restaurant, knowing my preferences and suggesting new items that are likely to be of interest to me is an excellent way to earn a very generous tip.

These slick marketing folks use the word "customer" a lot, but how they treat individuals is anything but as an individual. Rather, we become consumers -- small cogs in an immense, impersonal machinery of commerce. I have no objections to capitalism; I dislike that it seems to be giving way to consumerism. I do not want to be "milked" for my money; I am no one's cash cow. I don't want to be hounded after each transaction for feedback; if a store gives me good service and value, I'll be back. I enjoy the voluntary exchange of goods or services for my dollars; I abhor the artificial "personalization" that reduces me to a wallet from which to extract the maximum amount in minimum time. The latter transactions are increasingly common; the former, too-rare delights. The awful icing covering this entire, unpalatable cake is that customers are footing the bills for these data-mining and spying technologies, through higher prices for the things we buy.

Manufacturers and retailers: I am not a consumer; I am your customer. If you want my repeat business, provide a good product, and good customer service, at a good price.

I have nothing against advertising that tells me about your new or improved products (if they really are improved, that is; changing something does not necessarily constitute improvement), or tries to rationally persuade me that I should try your brand next time I need some product. I have many objections to being spied upon, recorded, and becoming lines of data in your computer records that are sold, rented, and used to milk my hard-earned money from me -- especially when this happens without my knowledge and consent. I have nothing against loss-prevention technologies that are known to be effective; I despise becoming an unknowing guinea pig for unreliable technology that offers marginal, if any, improvement over current loss-prevention technology.

To sum up: money still talks. Please don't throw the profit you get from me into the cesspools of phony-security-cum-tracking devices, or meaningless marketing that pushes hype over substance. Ignore the siren songs of CRM and CEM. Just provide me -- and the many others like me -- with good products and services in a setting that doesn't strip me of my dignity and humanity, and you will be rewarded with loyal customers. We're more likely to become your best "brand advocates" -- certainly better than any massively-manipulated consumer.