It truly amazes me that so many businesses are still doing the dodgy, unscrupulous, dishonest, unethical and even sometimes downright illegal. The range of what happens in business varies so much, and some things are just in poor taste and not ‘best practice’ whilst other things could have legal ramifications. In this blog, I’m going to give some examples of dodgy and dishonest, why it’s not good for business and if you’re a customer, what to look out for.
Examples of Poor Behaviour That Businesses Engage In
- Temporary price rises; especially when disaster hits. One great example is a storm or flood hits and people are stranded and then suddenly hotel or room prices triple or more overnight.
- Insider trading; using inside information to gain a better position, as can occur with stock traders.
- Trading insolvent. You can’t pay your bills, but you engage suppliers or contractors anyway, promise all is ok and then leave them high and dry without payment.
- Skimming; where you take a cut for yourself. Adding a percentage to a sub-contractor’s work is expected, but there are instances where an employee ‘adds’ their own cut too.
- Misleading customers. This is a broad one. It can be anything from saying something and doing something else, or letting a customer presume you operate in the norm, but you have different terms. For example, people assume once they pay for something, they own it, but in some instances (eg a graphic designer, might say they actually own the artwork, even once the client pays for it).
- Quoting EX GST despite the ACCC saying we legally should be quoting GST inclusive OR very clearly saying $XXXX plus GST.
- Selling something to someone who doesn’t need it, or it won’t work for them effectively. You may clearly know you can’t deliver, but you still allow (or worse, talk your client into) the sale to proceed.
- Badmouthing your competition. It’s tacky and most customers don’t like to hear it.
- Copyright infringement; stealing someone’s design or image and claiming it as your own.
- Short changing services. You might have quoted to do 3 coats, but only apply 2 coats, or perhaps you say you’ll supply an A-grade product, and use an inferior, or you say you’ve provided 8 hours of services, but only spend 5 hours on the job.
- Offering a ‘better price’ which is not the case. Black Friday sales are a classic example. Shortly beforehand, some (not all) suppliers raise their prices (say 35%) then say they are discounting 30% … so you’re actually still paying 5% above the normal price.
- Exploiting staff. Become less common with all the employment rules, but still occurs. It might be not paying OT, or making staff work weekends at normal rates, or even making staff do more advanced tasks than they are being paid to do.
- Omitting the facts. You tell a client some of the story or situation, but not the whole one. A class of this is where SEO people promise their client will get onto page 1 of Google within 6 months. No-one can guarantee this via SEO only. Sure, if you pay for Google Ads it can happen, but you didn’t disclose that.
- Locking clients into unreasonable contracts. This happens in coaching more often than it should. A 12-month contract is unreasonable and in many instances not needed.
- Tax avoidance. Here, people think it’s ‘just the Government’ who misses out, but reality is that every Aussie and person who does pay their taxes is funding those who try to dodge their responsibility.
- Not respecting clients. There is absolutely no reason to speak rudely to a client (or any person for that matter). I came across a business who did this and when the customer did a poor review, they got booted from their accommodation. Lesson here, if you are going to do a bad review, wait till you’ve left or are out of range of being abused.
- Stealing, theft & fraud. Obviously, all these things are illegal, but business owners do it, staff do it and even clients do it.
What are The Ramifications for The Business Who Behaves Poorly?
- Damage to your business’ reputation
- Legal repercussions
- Loss of employee morale
- Staff following your example and in return, treating the business badly (you get what you sow)
- No customer loyalty; in fact, they will flock away by the droves
- Financial loss if you’re sued or have legal action against you – not only in the legal fees, potential forced rectification, but also the time it takes you out of the business to deal with
- Word of mouth spreading; you do something wrong by someone they are sure to tell their friends
- Viral word of mouth spread – people don’t just tell their friends over the phone, they will tell their 5,000 Facebook ‘friends’ via a post.
- Bad reviews online; and know that people do look at reviews online. This will stop others from buying from you, without a doubt.
What Can You Do About It as A Business?
- Make the decision to operate in an ethical way
- Have a documented code of conduct
- Have documented processes and procedures
- Lead by example
- Train your team to behave and operate well
- Monitor what is happening in your business; ignorance isn’t an excuse
- If you’re looking to engage subbies or suppliers, see the section below.
What Can You Do About It as A Consumer?
- Do your due diligence and check out the business properly
- Read their reviews. One random bad one means little, but a string of the same message is telling you something.
- If it’s a big buy (franchise, business purchase or building) then investigate further. Inspections by professionals (builders, accountants, lawyers) is important, but then also talk to other people who have or are involved, eg other franchise owners (randomly chosen by you, not the franchisor).
- Get comparison prices; if one person is charging double than others, there might be a message here. The most expensive doesn’t always equate to the best.
- Clarify specifics and do this in writing. People forget super quickly what they said or heard after a very short time. Having an agreement in writing helps a heap.
- Clarify the key points up front. For example, I don’t lock my business coaching clients into long-term contracts, but I do ask for notice to stop or pause. That is communicated in my proposal, quote doc, in my cover emails and in my client agreements, plus it’s even on the invoice; said 4 times so you won’t miss it.
- If the work is important, clarify who will do the work. Never assume the person quoting, or the proprietor or owner will be the person supplying the service or doing the work. Ask!
- If you’re doing business face to face (such as retail) clarify a point again by repeating it back to the salesperson and asking them to confirm.
- If you’re given clauses, contracts or documentation, then read them. If it’s something serious, like a franchise agreement, get a lawyer to guide you.
- Take photographs. I almost got caught with a jeweller removing 3 links (an inch in total) from my gold bracelet when they were soldering on a charm. The before photo clearly showed the number of links and was proof I wasn’t imagining the bracelet was much tighter.
- Check before you pay. Inspect workmanship, quality and was the job done as outlined?
I hope these tips have helped you, whether you’re a business or a consumer. If you’re a business and you feel there is room for improvement or you’re looking for growth, reach out to me about my business coaching services which are available in all states of Australia, from Adelaide over to Perth and up to Cairns as well as Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. My passion is your potential!
Read 20 Effective Ways to Build Trust – In Business & In Life.
