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14.06.2013 Feature Article

Consumer Clout, Consumer Power

Consumer Clout, Consumer Power
14.06.2013 LISTEN

There's nothing more vexing than the continual dripping of consumer clichés from consumer rights champions hoping to inspire consumer revolutions through declamatory ranting of 'consumer rights' and 'consumer power', when the horse is actually 'consumer clout'. Consumer clout is about 'being influential' in getting immediate or later redress when you are wronged without necessarily 'threatening to use your influence'. Consumer clout is a form of soft power, consumer soft power.

By putting the cart of consumer rights and consumer power to the fore without teaching consumers how to gain influence and become the change they want through educational self-preservation-oriented consumerism, most consumers go about quoting consumer champions and threatening to report to the latter rather than citing and insisting on what they know to be their rights in the particular situation.

CASE STUDY: One fine Saturday, while playing with my little nephew Miguel Yeboah and his friends at his parents Tenth Wedding Anniversary, I got a phone call from Alex Yeboah, Restaurant Manager at Mazera Restaurant, Osu-Accra

The problem: a consumer is threatening to report the restaurant to a Consumer Rights 'Don'.

The reason: their Grilled Tilapia is too expensive!

Well, I personally trained this manager as a Consumer Advocate while he worked with me also as a Hospitality Expert. Now this consumer, after being reeducated on the theory and practice of Consumer Protection, and the Manager also referring him to the National Expert on Consumer Protection, could foresee his sudden fall for climbing hastily on an overused prank employed by those with good taste but impecunious. This time the trick was not going to work. Consumer power is not about whom you know and whom you believe to be powerful enough to get you undeserved redress.

Pro 18:17-18 KJV He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him. (18) The lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the mighty.

The customer in question, who was surely on a consumer power trip (eventually turned sour), like many revolutionized Ghanaian consumers, had a default complaints reflex: threaten in making your case and you will win because the consumer is always right! Wrong! His power trip had an unexpected denouement to his dismay. Consumer hard power is for revolutionaries, not advocates and influencers.

As I mentioned earlier, declamatory ranting does not win favours or solve consumer problems. In this age of digital consumption, collaboration=self-preservation=consumer protection.

Firstly, in a free market economy, where prices are determined by the forces of demand and supply, 'expensive' is not a business wrong, 'defective' is! This consumer seemed to reminisce the coup d'état days of Price Control Laws in Ghana during which period women were stripped naked and flogged in public by the military for hoarding, in order to profiteer from hyperinflation, locally termed 'KALABULE'. I thought he would rather call the military! This was a typical consumer wrong, no pun intended.

Secondly, Restaurants are licenced and graded by the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), which grading will give you a fair idea of what you should expect in terms of quality and price when you resolve to test your consumer power. Fine Dining is not for hungry consumers, but rather for those seeking a fine dining experience for the right price. Street food is the other alternative for hungry consumers who are determined to lose their right to redress for the right price in their haste. At least, you will not be able to trace the seller let alone rant about your consumer rights.

Besides, complaints have got a procedure and there is an International Standard for Complaints Management for businesses developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Next time you choose to go on a consumer power trip, please test your budget first.

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