UnSelling: The New Customer Experience

Chapter 25Direct versus Moral Offense

Somewhere along the way, I became the go-to for customer advocacy online. People are always sending me examples of bad service and poor customer experiences—and I love it.¹ Social media has created an even playing field for customers by providing endless information and a channel to voice and share their experiences and knowledge. “The customer knows best” isn't just an expression anymore—they really do.

The list of offenses by companies varies from long waiting times, faulty products, and understaffed service departments to high crimes of discrimination and cruelty. How we as customers decide to field this treatment is key to the concept of UnSelling—these experiences matter—they shape our buying patterns and the offenders' branding and success.

Along the way and over the years, hearing all these stories has become one of the best things about running UnMarketing and social media for me.

I have divided the types of offenses into two categories, which help explain why we react in certain ways to each type. They are direct offenses and moral offenses. Let's take a look and see what each one means.

A direct offense happens to you…or to me…or to both of us if we're out for coffee with the same rude waiter. These offenses are our personal stories of contacts with brands that go wrong. Whatever the pulse point may be, it happened to us. Direct offenses can challenge our morals or be about quality and/or service.

Moral offenses can happen to you ...