The anti-piracy television commercial is really interesting. For it makes a subtle but very significant statement: Piracy is crime. Though most of us believe this statement, there are very few who actually follow it. Unlike acts like breaking into a house or vandalizing a shop – which would really eat into our conscience if we were to ever indulge in it – selling re-marked memory chips or re-furbished processors to unsuspecting customers are not actions that would make us lose much sleep. For we don’t perceive it as robbery. It is seen more like bending the rule – not breaking it.
But the theft is not in the act; it’s in the commitment that we make to the customer. By selling a naive client some outdated technology tit-bit we would definitely earn a few extra bucks, the easy way. But what we lose out on is a customer. And this loss is more permanent, and definitely more damaging to the business. For, when a customer realizes that he has been taken for a ride, he is not going to come back and neither is he going to encourage others to come back either.
His rage is the same that you feel when a distributor or manufacturer points out to loopholes in your contract to doge responsibility from a tricky situation. We often pay a heavy price for not reading the fine print. Sometimes, the fault lies with us for trusting the other party blindly. Sometimes it is because of snags like half-truths. But mostly it’s always an avoidable unpleasantness, had both parties been equally honest.
The honesty is not to the customer; it’s to your business and to the future of that business. Selling sub-standard products is short-term business plan. The instances of fake products are increasing, especially in the smaller markets, where awareness is not very widespread. In metros, too, the high-value pen drive market is flooded with counterfeit products.
It won’t be long before the consumer wakes up and realizes the truth. What happens then? Will he/she thank you for showing him the fine print?
I sincerely hope so.