Can harassing your customers be profitable?

Here is a really interesting (and scary) article about a business that figured out how harassing its customers could lead to higher profits (and it is all driven by social media). Essentially, what one guy figured out, is that negative reviews have two effects on his business: First, they reduce sales a bit, since people who find the negative reviews are less likely to shop at his online store. However, they also have a positive effect: the more people complain about his store, and link back to it, the higher it appears on the Google rankings. Sadly, the second effect is larger than the first, so this business owner purposely harasses some of his customers (to an unimaginable degree) purely to get them to write negative reviews.

A couple of weeks ago we discussed ethics in class, and how it is important to consider more than just profits when making business decisions. Clearly this guy skipped his class on ethics. I hope you guys remember that class when you rejoin the business world.

http://nyti.ms/h0pUSN