Amazon.com is known for being a very forward-looking business. With all of its innovations (one-click purchase, Kindle e-reader, Alexa virtual assistant, drone-based delivery, etc.) the company engineers the future, seemingly knowing where the marketplace is destined to go — three, five, ten years down the road.
Which begs the question: With the inclusion of a “Zombie Apocalypse” clause in Amazon’s Terms of Service — should we all be worried?
Yes, it’s right there in Paragraph 57.10 of the user agreement for Amazon Web Services (AWS) — a section regarding the use of Amazon’s “Lumberyard” games development engine (a 3D game design program that’s available to software developers using the AWS platform):
In this paragraph, Amazon notes that their software is not intended for use with “life-critical or safety-critical systems” (so, basically, you can’t use it to run life support systems or manage air traffic control).
However, the user agreement lifts this restriction if the U.S. Centers For Disease Control declare the presence of a “widespread viral infection transmitted by bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh… and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.”
Yes, you read that right… Amazon is disclosing a contingency for the Zombie Apocalypse. If that horror comes to pass, customers can use Amazon’s software for whatever the heck they need in order to survive!
Alright, so Amazon is injecting some humor in what are typically long, boring and dense Terms of Service that, let’s face it, none of us ever read – for any company.
But the fact that the flesh-eating undead can be referenced in a document like this, without hardly anyone noticing, speaks to a larger and more serious issue: disclosure documents like this are an awful way to communicate important information to your customer.
Companies bury important details in opaque disclosures that they count on no one reading. Examples abound – coverage exclusions for your insurance, service fees for your bank account, cancellation fees for your gym membership, price hikes for your cable TV package, or conflicts of interest for your financial advisor.
Organizations hide behind these disclosure documents and point to them as evidence that anything important is indeed revealed to the customer.
But here’s the key thing these companies are missing: disclosure is not a proxy for transparency. Indeed, as practiced these days (with pages of unintelligible fine print), disclosure is the antithesis of transparency.
So let’s start referring to disclosure documents for what they really are – a tool businesses use to convey information they don’t want anyone to see.
Until more companies reject such disingenuous practices (as Southwest Airlines, a perennial customer experience leader, has done with its Transfarency strategy), consumer trust in businesses will continue to erode.
Want to strengthen your customer relationships? Then go beyond the legally required disclosures and start communicating with people in a clear and forthright way.
That sends a signal to customers that you’re advocating for them, helping them avoid unpleasant surprises, be it in the form of excessive fees, conflicts of interest, or the zombie-induced fall of organized civilization.
And that’s the kind of advocacy that makes for a great customer experience.
Jon Picoult is the founder of customer experience advisory firm Watermark Consulting. As a consultant and a speaker, he’s worked with the CEOs and executive teams of some of the world’s leading brands. Learn more about Watermark or follow Jon on Twitter @JonPicoult.