RNZ: Are businesses trying to hide price rises?
By Lou O’Reilly
Founder, O’Reilly & Co
I was quoted by RNZ this week in a story looking at the growing trend of businesses notifying customers of "price adjustments" without clearly explaining what has changed.
The article was basically about whether terms like "price adjustment", "price change" or "pricing update" help businesses soften the impact of a price increase, and whether that comes at the expense of transparency.
My view is that most people understand prices go up. What‘s most annoying to customers is having to do the work to figure out how much a bill has changed and what that means for them.
As I told RNZ:
"If people need to go back through old bills or bank statements to understand the impact, that creates resentment rather than trust."
The story also included commentary from marketing academics and consumer advocates on the role that transparency plays in building long term customer loyalty.