I’ve started capturing fine-print because it represent everything that is wrong in our society. Or at least everything that is wrong in customer experience.
See this for example from my flight the other day:
Easy Jet, come on, do you really think I’ll sue you if you run out of olives? Just as I was starting to enjoy our relationship you go and put a “subject to availability” between us?
Or this one by Mont Blanc – The front says: 1000 NIS special gift! And this is the back:
What kind of a gift is this? By the time I finish reading the fine print all I am left with is “thank you but no thank you”. Maybe, instead, Mont Blanc can just trust their brand. Maybe, if they get me in the store, the fancy pens and watches and the great customer service will be so inviting that I end up spending more? And if I don’t that time, if they make it totally OK to just use the gift, maybe I’ll come again? Right now it just feels like they’re tricking me into spending at least 1000 NIS and making me choose the stuff they can’t get rid of.
This should be the rule of thumb: if you can’t write it front and center, and in the font size you use to draw people in, just drop it altogether. In the long run, for the good brands, it’s worth more in loyalty to be generous and trust their customers (and also to train their service people to kindly handle conversation with customers), than they may save by adding fine-print.
To everyone who’s reading this and feels the same about fine-print, if you send me fine-print that you think are ridiculous [and where it was taken] I’ll add them to an album called ‘seriously?’ and publish it.
Together, we can stop fine prints.