What are the ethical issues in relations between business and customers?

Nowadays the level of competition between businesses is high because of big quantity of producers of relatively same goods and services. Because of that, companies try to do as much work as it is necessary to somehow differentiate their product from competitors. Their profit is firstly dependent on how much money people are willing to pay for the product or service (based on their income), secondly on the level of customer loyalty and thirdly on the truthfulness of the company itself. To adapt to the high-competitive environment, companies need to build strong customer relationships, it is core component in future successful sales. If people are interested and satisfied with product and service, they will continue to repurchase it and long-term relations can be established. The aim of any company is to save existing customers and attract new ones. To attract new customers company should use any tools that will work. To establish long-term successful and profitable relations, company should definitely conduct its business in ethic way. However, sometimes there are probably situations, when doing wrong things (grey market, absence of customer care, bad/cheap product) may result in much higher income. This view indicates that ethics and profit are inversely related (Bowie 1998). The situation, when stated promotion does not coincide with the reality is rather common and is a good example of unethical behavior; people believe in colorful advertising and spend money on bad product, in reality wasting their money. Every day, while shopping in a store, ordering food in a restaurant, trying on clothes, we are heavily influenced by advertising. All our decisions are controlled by skilled marketers, PR specialists and psychologist, and most of time decisions we make are not in our favor. Companies spend huge amounts of money on social surveys and market research to better understand their customers. One of the major ethical problems is that companies attempt to sell people things that they do not really need. Thanks to globalization, people all over the world can reach food products that they want, if they have enough money. People are interested in losing weight, getting necessary nutrients and eating healthy. Here come the marketers, putting bold and colorful “low-fat”, “0 calories” labels on products. Ann Louise Gittleman, an American health guru in her book “Eat Fat, Lose Weight…” showed simple U.S. statistics:

Advertisers have learned that the words fat free, low fat, or reduced fat translate into an instant sales boost. Just take a look at how low-fat Snackwells have replaced Oreos as the nation's best-selling cookie. The magic adjectives "low fat" and "fat free" seem to convey to us that we have unlimited permission to scarf down whole boxes of the stuff - without getting fat! So let's look at the evidence. Since we as a nation have gone fat free, here's what has happened:
- Obesity has increased more than 23 percent.
- Adult-onset diabetes has skyrocketed.
- The incidence of certain kinds of heart diseases has increased.
- Depression has become a widespread national disorder.
- Immune system viral infections like chronic fatigue and other illnesses are rampant.

As we see, the consumption of pretending to be healthy food is dramatically affecting nation’s health. The packaging shows a huge amount of vitamins and minerals, but on the other hand, they are packed with sugar and empty calories. Switching your diet most of the time may be psychologically harmful and challenging, as a result people need to have a transitional substitute. Switching from Coca-Cola to Coca-Cola Zero/Diet Coke is a good example of self-deception. The most important content of diet coke is the artificial sweetener. It enhances the taste of the drink but is not metabolized and absorbed by the body, this is the reason why it is considered as sugar free or light or low in calorie. The artificial sweetener used in diet coke is usually aspartame. This is a substitute to sucrose. Though it is used widely, it has many health issues which are still under controversies. Apart from this, it also contains phosphoric acid which may increase the acidic content of the body and may affect the bone density of the body. Caffeine is also considered to be harmful for the body if taken in a high amount.

Taking advantage of the lack of necessary knowledge of people about the product and its content, companies sell and advertise a product that initially has a negative effect on the human body. That means that Coca-Cola doesn’t take the responsibility for the impact of their product and lies to their customers. Such behavior definitely can’t be called ethical. Partnership between company and customer should be based upon commitment, trust and continuous improvement. Nowadays online shopping is a fast-developing area of sales. According to statistics, percent of U.S. online users who have made an internet purchase in 2011 in is 83%. Online shopping is convenient, fast and cheaper than regular. Marketing attempts to create an impression of a personal relationship to customers even if the supplier does not know the customers or even meet them. It is a pseudo-personal relationship, but, all the same, it could be an efficient one (Gummesson, 2002). There are couple of problems which exist between two parties. First of all, it’s customer service and responsiveness of the company. Its quality directly affects future relations between buyer and seller. Another issue is lack of honesty from both sides: seller can lie about delivery time; buyer may tell that product never arrived, and because of large distance between them, it can take a lot of time to solve the issue. The main aim of any entity is obviously profit maximization. There is a trick of online stores, when they make free shipping on entire assortment of products.

The phrase "free shipping" is like a siren song to many who shop on the Internet. Consumers like free shipping offers, perhaps because it makes the online retail transaction more comparable with that at the neighborhood store. Whatever the reason, it's clear that consumer behavior changes when shipping fees are imposed. Some companies have struck a middle ground by waving shipping costs when customers exceed a threshold - a strategy that can indeed make customers think differently about price. Whereas higher prices always are bad for consumers in traditional retailing, customers of online retailers can benefit from higher prices because they push the total closer to the free shipping threshold.

Sometimes buyer becomes a victim of its geographical location and financial position. When there is a certain amount, which is required to achieve before having free shipping, people instinctively try to reach the necessary quantity of things that they don’t really need. It turns out that trying to pay less, they spend more, and this is the main goal of service provider. Seller can also raise the price of the shipping, when there is no alternative for the customer to buy exact this product anywhere else, and such business behavior may be considered as speculation. Speculation is the practice of engaging in risky financial transactions in an attempt to profit from short or medium term fluctuations in the market value of a tradable good such as a financial instrument, rather than attempting to profit from the underlying financial attributes embodied in the instrument such as capital gains, interest, or dividends (Wikipedia). Speculation doesn’t lead to sustainable development of long-lasting business and its success, but it helps to maximize profit in short time period.
Every organization is hungry for profit, some of them still believe in unethical conduct of business. Large corporations have immense impact on society, which shows the necessity of ethical behavior towards its customers and stakeholders. Competition among companies should also be fair and free of collusions, which are harmful for customers. For beneficial relations, business and customers should be considered as partners, who have equal obligations and responsibilities to each other, such concept of relationships would definitely lead to success. Every detail of the mechanism of company should beneficial, bring profit to the company and should satisfy the customer. The internal atmosphere of the company, welfare and satisfaction of employees directly affects its customers. Loyal employees who are content with their job and income, are more loyal and will do their work not only for own sake, but for the welfare of the company as a whole. Especially it is important, when employees have direct contact with customers via personal communication; they automatically become face and representative of the business.
As we know, if there is a bad rumor about some company, the demand for its product will decrease. That’s why it is very important to keep the reputation, have strong customer service, good relations with other stakeholders, do not allow government intervention and to lead honest business. The level of customer satisfaction should be a guideline for a business in which direction they should be developing. Business should be trustful and reliable; it leads to long-term growth, success and profitability.