CNN.com - Study: Shoppers naive about retail prices online - Jun 1, 2005

CNN.com - Study: Shoppers naive about retail prices online - Jun 1, 2005

I do have to agree with The Geek that that this is a huge invasion of my privacy, but then again if Amazon, Best Buy, or my local grocer is going to gather information on me anyways I might as well benefit somewhat. I have not checked out my local grocer to see if I can get some custom coupons off the internet. The trick though is I want to get SOMETHING. I don't want to get charged more because I keep coming back to your site/store and buy the same thing.

I have been having trouble with this in real life as well. Give me some reason to remain a loyal customer. My bank, to attract new customers, offer free ATM use from other banks but for me, who has been a customer for over 10 years having all my accounts (save 1 CD and a small savings account I have had since I was 10) have to pay. You see the same thing in cellphone service. Essentially you are using your current customers to fund new customers.

What does this mean? If you are going to track my spending habits, give me something useful in return - discounts, new product info that is related to my spending habits. I'm a single male, I don't really care about feminine hygeine products or tampons. I buy maybe 1 bottle of wine every 2 years, don't tell me about the latest beer sale. If I have some kind of service from you, don't require me to call you and jump through hoops to get changes that the same services I could get if I was a new customer. Charging me more because you know my shopping habits or making me call you to claim a service is customer abuse, and one reason why many of us have no loyalty. Building a business model based on churn is not a way to sustain a business.