Is the “We are so sure you’ll love it, that we’re willing to give it to you FREE! Just pay shipping and handling.” model worth it? It depends on if you are honest about it.
What about when you factor in the cost of really pissed off customers that find out later you snuck in a “it’s really a free trial, and unless you call us within # of days, we’ll charge you full price for all the items we sent.” somewhere in an obscure spot that is impossible to notice, but makes your scam legal.
Fraudulent use of celebrity names seems to be running rampant: Dr. Oz, Sally Field, Mike Rowe. We have seen where Clint Eastwood was fighting back and suing a CBD company for them implying he endorsed it to sell products. Now, we heard of another CBD company, supposedly owned by Keanu Reeves, that employs the above bait and switch practice mentioned above. I’m sure he has no idea what is going on at that level, but it’s a negative reflection on his name. It’s not a good thing.
Not Keanu!!
Sadly, we have to say…it is so. Calling customer service at Keanu’s CBD company leads to a 30+ minute wait on hold. That means they have a full service they are paying for to combat the avalanche of phone calls coming in to complain about fraudulent charges on their cards.
How much can that cost your business? Excess staff to man the phones has to be pretty expensive. BUT the negative word of mouth…Keanu Reeves can’t be trusted. Or worse…{Insert your company name here} can’t be trusted. It’s much much more expensive than just being honest and building a solid customer base.
It also effects your other businesses. If customers know they can’t trust this business you own, then they won’t trust that business either. Keanu is involved with a GREAT motorcycle company, Arch Motorcycle. Their bikes are very cool. His staff is very very nice. What if the negative talk works its way through the customer base? What happens to them then?
What if Clint Eastwood fans buy something that gives them an equal experience, and instead of taking it out on the company that lied, they focus on Clint?
What if it’s your small business, just barely scraping by, and you try to push sales with dishonestly, only to find out that costs more than you made? Now you are in more debt than you began with.
The bottom line is…be awesome and be honest.