Online shopping and apps have given us great power: use it well
Consumers can seriously damage a business through their words or actions, so use your power wisely. If you harness new online technologies, there are some great money-saving results.
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Last week I contacted a major taxi company to tell them they’d just created a new Uber user.
For the fourth time in recent memory, a pre-booked early-morning cab failed to arrive — resulting in a mad dash to the airport in our family car and an almost-missed flight.
I’d spent years avoiding Ubers despite the urgings of friends, partly because I hoped to keep taxi drivers and taxi owners employed amid the rise of global tech giants.
But last week’s shemozzle was the last straw, and I’ve now signed up to Uber. It got me thinking about just how much power consumers have today, and how easily we can wield it.
Long-term relationships with businesses can be severed in an instant. And new relationships with businesses can start within seconds thanks to our smartphones.
Word of mouth has been replaced by online reviews that massively multiply the number of people finding out about customer experiences.
But we need to be careful. “With great power comes great responsibility” is the famous quote that comes from either the French Revolution or Marvel’s Spider-Man comics, depending on who you believe.
Consumers can seriously damage a business through their words or actions, so use your power wisely. If you harness new online technologies, there are some great money-saving results.
SHOP AROUND
You can visit many stores in a few minutes using the internet, and won’t burn litres of petrol doing it.
Just remember that price isn’t everything, because product quality and customer service are still important.
READ ONLINE REVIEWS
Some reviewers are just plain nasty. Others are plants from businesses trying to spruce up their image.
But if you read enough reviews about a product or service, you’ll get a general idea about what to expect.
Just remember that it’s more common for people to complain than to praise.
DO YOUR RESEARCH
It only takes a few minutes online to get an idea of the going rate of anything — from clothes to food to airfares.
Comparison websites have their knockers because several don’t compare the prices of all competitors in a sector — but check enough of them and you’ll work out what’s a good price and what’s not.
HAGGLE
You don’t have to be someone who enjoys haggling. All you need to do is know what a competitor offers, and then ask a business if they can beat or match it.
A growing number of businesses will price-match because they know how easy it is for customers to compare prices online.
COMPUTER MEMORY
Some shopping experts recommend leaving an item you want in an online cart but not buying it for a few days.
The retailer’s algorithms might spot it sitting there and offer you a better deal, they say.
On the flip side, consider clearing your cookies and browsing history regularly.
I recently kept visiting an overseas airline website to check flight times and prices, and on every visit the price got more expensive. Once I cleared cookies, it was cheaper again.