The true cost of cyber attacks in the automotive aftermarket

May 29, 2015
Recently there were a number of cyber attacks that affected many of the servers in our industry.  Sometimes I think we consider ourselves unlikely to be affected because we don’t have customer credit card numbers on file or any critical information stored where someone can get to it.

Recently there were a number of cyber attacks that affected many of the servers in our industry.  Sometimes I think we consider ourselves unlikely to be affected because we don’t have customer credit card numbers on file or any critical information stored where someone can get to it.

Personally I had my Starbucks account hacked through Facebook. I caught it before any real damage was done financially. The clown that did it left his email address in my account so before I had Starbucks change it I sent him an email with a virus that some other clown sent me about a thousand times. It was probably a fake email address but it made me feel better.

So the question that I want to pose for you to think about is what is the true cost of this cyber hassle?

Back to my Starbucks account. It took me more than four months to get my account to the point that I could reload my card without the assistance of a barista. I had to call their customer service three times and they could not find a problem at the level 1 support level. Finally after the third call the customer service rep pushed my problem to someone with higher security clearance into my account.  Total time for the calls exceeded one hour, not to mention the multiple times I tried to call but could not get through before another phone rang in the office.

It might seem like my coffee habit has nothing to do with cyber security or customer service but in my highly caffeinated state I think that it does. These seemingly small annoyances have costs far beyond the potential financial loss of the fraudulent transaction.

My relationship with Starbucks is not as warm and fuzzy as it used to be because they did not have the security through Facebook to differentiate between someone being me or a hacker, despite my credit card being attached to the account. Also, it is frustrating to be the customer and feel that you have more of a handle on the problem than the customer service rep does. 

I think those messages on the phone that say, “Listen closely, our menus have changed,” actually should be changed.  How about something like this: “If you believe your support question is an easy one like a lost password or lost card please press 1. If you think your question is a difficult one or you have not been able to solve your problem on an earlier call please press 2.”

The underlying message is, “We think you’re smart enough to determine the difficulty of your problem and we want to solve it the first time.” Sure there are going to be people who press two for very easy problems but think about the time saved at level 1 by not handling things out of their wheelhouse. Yes, there is an intended auto repair analogy in that as well as my rant about bad phone support.

Think about the retailer’s stake in this.  In my case there are lost sales because I could not buy their products without additional hassle. The cost of supporting a bunch of customers with hacked accounts ties up customer service reps that could be supporting sales.

Next there is the cost of reversing transactions along with the near certain revenue loss associated with it. The last and most important on my list is the loss of good will that things like this cause even when it is not directly the business’ fault. There is no logic to it. Why buy from someone else? It’s emotional, like a trust has been violated somehow. It is an open door to a competitor who did not even have to do anything to open it.

So what’s the moral of the story? As businessmen and women we are caretakers of our customers.  We cannot assume that what worked for us yesterday will continue to work for us today or tomorrow. We have to look unemotionally at what has the strongest emotional effect on our customers. Then we have to make sure those items fit their needs even before they know what their needs are. Oh, and change your password to something a little trickier than your birth year and first name in lower case. 

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