When Hedonistic Capitalism Kills Good Social Intentions

In one of my recent articles, I looked at a paradoxical case for the common sense of blind, religion-like belief in the customer experience. In that article, which you can read here, I identified some important points to effectively manage the customer experience, the fundamental point very clear to my friend and co-author of a paper I wrote last year, Gian Paolo Franzoni, is CUSTOMER EXPECTATION. Be very clear in setting the expectations so as to meet or better satisfy (exceed or excel) the customer's expectation in full. To make a long story short: you cannot be Singapour Airlines and EasyJet at the same time. In this particular case, you can't present yourself as the Marxist revolution, when you ultimately get dazzled by the sirens of Reganian hedonism.

Today, I was inspired by this article that appeared on the Swiss-Italian portal tio.ch. I should mention that the person they interview in the article is my daughter Federica, so yes, I am biased and fully involved. However, I will try to maintain certain impartiality. But let's get to the heart of the matter, what are we talking about?

We're talking about a brilliant Danish startup with a clear social goal, that we'd all like to see win hands down Too Good To Go. When emotionally I think of "Too Good To Go", I remember when I was a child and I used to watch Zorro's episodes, strictly in black and white - I didn't have color television at home, and this makes you understand how old I'm - and I was looking forward to the revenge of good over evil, of poor over rich, the winning revolt of the oppressed, and all those things that happen in movies with happy endings. There, when we first see TooGoodToGo, that's probably what we think. Let's save the world together! And in my subconscious, doing something useful for the world that cleanses my dirty social conscience a bit.

Unfortunately, the truth is something else. But let's get this straight, the process and customer experience should be quite simple: the restaurant, or store, at the end of the day, offers discounted excess products through what Too Good To Go calls "Magic Boxes". The end customer gets the benefit of taking at a discount something that otherwise would have gone straight into the garbage can. In the end, the customer has two advantages: he buys at an extremely low price, and at the same time he feels good because he has contributed to a better world. And this second point should significantly outweigh our desire to save the planet and use this app, but unfortunately, the reality is different.

But it's all so good, Zorro is beating the bad guys and will soon be freeing the oppressed, where is the problem? The problem is that Zorro did not choose the correct target group to save. The problem is that Too Good To Go, probably, doesn't manage the CX expectations of its end customers correctly, nor those of its business partners. This is the real big problem: you cannot expect to receive at 60%-70% less price something that is as perfect as those who have paid much more than you. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Unfortunately, the end customer doesn't understand the concept of Too Good To Go, but is the fault of the end customer, or Too Good To Go not setting the correct customer expectations?

On one hand, Too Good To Go's website is clear, first of all, it's a .org, and this already should make us think, but surely few people think about this. The home page is a manifesto to the sustainability of the planet "the planet needs you!" or "Come fight food waste with us", or even "Creating real change". However, this is not followed by consistent behavior. Refunding Magic Boxes without involving the supplier of this food in the discussion, well that's not the best way to change the world and build something great altogether. Or maybe, more simply, educating a consumerist world into something different and greener is difficult. And maybe, but this is a purely personal opinion of mine, it's not even in the interest of Too Good To Go, the Danish company that has raised in the last capital increase 31.3 million dollars, and despite the .org, is therefore driven by a logic of pure capitalism, nothing more. A great idea, killed by boorish capitalism.

Or, more simply, the fault is ours. We are animals sick of consumerism. It's hard to say. Despite this beautiful social initiative in our ego, we are more interested in the consumerist bargain, than in social and worthy action. Consumerist egoism prevails. As does the capitalistic selfishness of Too Good ToG o's funders.

It is difficult to place definitive blame. Perhaps, as always, the truth lies somewhere in between. TooGoodToGo doesn't fully manage the expectations of the end customer and plays on some ambiguity, and the end customer doesn't understand the rules of the game and demands to receive the super deal to be the smartest guy in the village, the one who buys at 60-70% less than those who preceded him a few hours earlier. We talk a lot about the sharing economy, green economy, experience economy. All very nice and full of great ideas to improve the world and with him all of us. Unfortunately, all these ideas clash with the ego-economy. The one that has guided humans being for millennia, and perhaps is part of our DNA and is difficult to change because it is embedded in our genetic code. It is not a .org domain that will change the world, unfortunately.