Adversarial Customer Relationships and the NBA Finals
Last fall, I got a piece of mail from Time Warner Cable. It was a bill. The same bill I had gotten twelve times earlier since I started my relationship with them. Or so I thought. Tearing the left side of the envelope away, and puckering my lips to open the Carsonian slot I had created, I had no idea that the corner of the envelope falling to the ground was a gauntlet that TWC was dropping at my feet. They were no longer satisfied receiving the standard rate for their services. The bill that I held in my hand declared that they wanted an additional ten dollars a month. No increase in services. No expiring specials. No warning. No explanation. No apology.
In April, I moved a lot of money around for the same reason a lot of people were moving a lot of money around - the federal government wanted my contribution to the United States Treasury for the protection, services, and leadership they provide me. In moving that money around, I made a few miscalculations in our family spending habits. One of our accounts overdrafted by $5.00. That temporary five dollar loan from Pittsburgh National Corporation Financial Services cost me $41.00 to pay back, or 820%. A thirty second transfer before 12am that night could have saved me from the draconian, punitive loan-sharking PNC imposed upon me. A heads-up email. A 10pm SMS. A push notification to their app on my phone would have given me the chance to make it right, and not miss out on a chance to take my wife to the movies or treat my daughter to a baseball game. When I logged in the next day it was there, in the transaction log. Five dollars overdrafted. Thirty-six dollars charged. A letter in the mail three days later explained how I had been fleeced.
On July 8th, 2010, Lebron James sat down in front of a camera in Greenwich, Connecticut to announce he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh with the Miami Heat. I sat and watched in a bar in Niles, OH with my fiance, 16 days before our wedding day. Darkness had surrounded Cleveland sports since 1964 when Jim Brown walked off the field for the Cleveland Browns a champion, and out of football for good, prematurely chased off the team and out of the league by owner Art Modell. Lebron James was chosen to cut through that darkness. Annointed to be the greatest basketball player of all time, every fan in Cleveland knew that this was the man who could bring a championship to Cleveland. The problem was that Lebron did not know that. He left and took his considerable talents to South Beach. Today he did what every fan in Cleveland knew he could do 9 years ago - exert his will for two months and dominate the NBA playoffs and finish a champion. Only he did it for another city. For another team. For another group of fans.
The legal team at Time Warner Cable would tell me that they have the right to raise their rates at any time without notice. I have the right to discontinue services at any time. Nevermind that I live in suburban Ohio and there are no other broadband providers around. Nevermind that I as a web application developer I need internet access to make my living.
My grandfather, your grandfather, and the proverbial grandfather would tell me that if I managed my money better, I wouldn’t have to pay PNC 800% on my money when I made some clerical errors. Nevermind that I’m running a business and raising a family and have limited time to disect balance sheets. Nevermind that any of a hundred simple algorithms well within the ability of PNC to provide could have saved me a date night with my wife.
ESPN talking heads will tell you that sports are a business, and that NBA free agents have the right to do what they want. That they can play for whatever team that they want for whatever reason that they want, and that if the fans don’t get it, that’s their problem, and they shouldn’t be so naive. Nevermind that Lebron’s dumping Cleveland (a suffering, sports-crazed, cold-weather city whose basketball team made every effort to build its superstar a championship team) for Miami (a vibrant, tropical destinantion where sports are priority #217 whose basketball team just finished wasting 4 years of its superstar’s prime) was the greatest injustice in the history of sports. Nevermind that the business you’re talking about is the business of selling tickets and merchandise to the very fans you claim don’t get it.
I do business with these three companies. Regularly. Time Warner, PNC, and Lebron James are brands that I gain value from. Broadband internet access, finacial services, and sports entertainment have strong value propositions in my life, and I want to continue to gain access to that value.
But I hate that those three brands treat me as an adversary.
The unfortunate position I find myself in is that most professional athletes are prima donnas. Most cable companies raise their rates without warning or explanation. Most banks charge fees to their customers when they make mistakes.
So I have no choice.
And if you’re running a business, and your customer has no choice, then it makes sense to annoy them. It makes sense to pad your bottom line with their frustrations. It makes sense to glorify yourself with their suffering.
It makes sense, to not love them.
That is, until someone in your industry decides they’re going to love them. Then they’ve got a problem.
So the lesson for entrepreneurs is simple. Are you going after Time Warner? Do you want to take down PNC? Do you think you have what it takes to compete with Microsoft, Yahoo, Ebay, Amazon, Google, Apple, or Facebook?
Well, then all you have to do is make sure to do one thing that large companies seem to forget to do every now and again - love your customer.
Eventually, the incumbents in the industry you’re trying to disrupt will forget to love the customers you’re trying to steal from them. You don’t have to hate your competition, you just have to love your customer. If that’s your motto, your mission statement, and your modus operandi, then you’ll never fail. You’ll always be successful, and your customers will never feel like Time Warner customers, PNC clients, or Cleveland Cavaliers fans. Your customers will love you, and they’ll happily give you their money.
And that’s what every entrepreneur should be shooting for.