If you answered “yes” to any of the four questions, your company may be engaged in what an article, “Companies And The Customers Who Hate Them” in the Harvard Business Review calls “adversarial value-extracting strategies.”

Not only do these company-centric methods anger consumers, it makes your customer base vulnerable to new, customer-centric companies. Witness the disruptive effects of Netflix, ING Direct, and Virgin Mobile.

It costs 10 times as much to get a new customer as it does to retain an old one. So why not shave a few mil from that bloated ad budget and spend it on making your customer base happier? Your bottom line will thank you.

If you have access to EBSCO, like through your school or library, you can read the article by searching for AN 24998010. — BEN POPKEN

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