The tragedy of the commons: Why service businesses are killing themselves

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As a customer service guy by trade, I have noticed somethinginteresting recently: more businesses than ever are chasing their bestcustomers away.
Put bluntly, I can no longer make a major purchase - andsometimes even a minor one - without getting aggressively hounded to buy upgrades,add-on warranties or services I don't want, to a degree I have never seenbefore. I often react to this pressure by never coming back. Multiply this bylots of others, and I can see why many retail and service businesses are goingthe way of lemmings marching off a cliff.
Take the time I took a business trip to the West Coast, and wasbrowbeaten by the rental car agent for the entire transaction about upgradingto a bigger car - asking why I didn't want it, pushing the benefits of the moreexpensive car, and sighing and acting like I was stupid not to take advantageof such a deal. (Even worse was the time an agent said, "How would youlike an Impala?" implying I was getting one anyway, and then silentlyupcharging me without my permission.) Nowadays I rent cars from firms withautomated kiosks where possible, and avoid live agents like the plague.
More recently, I went to purchase some home exerciseequipment. As soon as the dreaded extended warranty question came up, I made itclear I had no interest whatsoever. Not that my wishes mattered. Thesalesperson insisted on going over one "benefit" after another of hisplan, as I kept saying no thanks.
Then he asked why I didn't want to buy it, and silly me, Itold him: I rarely use coverage like this, and when I have actually filed aclaim my service experiences have usually been horrible. Of course, he didn'tactually want to know why I wasn'tinterested. He just wanted to keep me talking so he could yeah-but everything I said. Finally, as he kept blathering on, I walked away.
Same deal when I purchased a new computer this month. Thistime the clerk not only didn't give up, but called her manager over for yetanother round of "Why don't you want to buy this service plan?"  I practically felt like I was going to be ledaway for an interrogation before I made it to the checkout counter.
In perhaps the stupidest example of all - and one I blogged about previously - I went to a bookstore for the express purpose of purchasingsome expensive professional books I had once browsed there. Solely to be fairto the store instead of buying them online. My reward was to be ceaselesslyhectored to purchase a $25 discount card I had no interest in, because mysavings would cover half the fee I had no intention of paying. After at leastfive rounds of  "no thanks,"with her visibly clucking and sighing at me in front of everyone about it, Isilently resolved to click "add to cart" forever after.
In sociological terms, this is what we call the tragedy ofthe commons. It happens when individuals, acting in their own self-interest,ultimately destroy a shared resource - in this case, their paying customers -in much the same way that farmers let common lands get over-grazed aslong as their own cows get there first.
Here is how the math works: Upselling improves a company's short-termbottom line. So some genius at headquarters orders everyone to do itaggressively or else. Then customers like me get hassled and shift permanently tobuying elsewhere or online. Which makes them even more desperate.
It is often even worse for the employees than for thecustomers. Once at a chain jewelry store, for example, I saw a poster on theback of the stockroom door with a truly stupefying list of daily sales goals: closeX amount of revenue, upsell Y number of customers, sell Z numbers of serviceplans, etc. Employees who don't "close" as hard, and are thereforeliked better by customers, often lose their jobs or don't get bonuses. Theultimate impact of losing these less-pesky employees - and good customers - ofcourse never gets measured.
Not every company falls victim to this trend. Take Wal-Mart:they offer extended warranties at check-out, but the cost is very reasonable,and at least at my store, they won't hold up the line pestering you if youaren't interested. And of all places, my favorite car dealer. We recentlyleased a new Honda, and the literature for their add-on services was just that:literature. No pressure and no problem. We'll be back.
Businesses today seem to have fallen into a vicious cycle ofbullying people to make one-time sales, while chasing away the loyal long-termcustomers they need to survive. The solution? Start learning a basic conceptfrom the world of dating: no means no.