I walked into a cute little clothing shop and noticed the door was flanked by airport-style security scanners. Anti-theft tags dangled off of all the clothing. After selecting a few items I went up to check out and saw a fun beaded necklace in a glass case. I asked to see it. Interestingly the necklace only $13 but the proprietor seemed hesitant to take it out. She snatched it back and put it in the locked glass case the moment my attention transferred elsewhere. This was slightly awkward because I wanted to buy it. It was clear that I and all of my fellow shoppers were under surveillance.
Until recently all big corporations tried protect themselves from their customers. As customers, we rarely got the benefit of the doubt. But now the tables are turning and in most places the customer does gets the benefit of the doubt. Whenever we are not given the benefit of the doubt it creates a lot of conversation because this is not the norm and it makes us feel terrible.
99.7% of our members are not going to take advantage. 0.03% might and no matter the rules we create, the words we write, the policies we develop, they will take advantage anyway. The rules, the words, the policies only prove to the other 99.7% that they are not to be trusted.
It doesn’t feel good to be taken advantage of but the next time it happens we should suppress the urge to protect the association. If it happens again and again figure out a way to alter the value or experience so it can’t happen. Do you know of long-standing areas where we have protected the association? What would happen if we took down the shields?
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