Importance of Transparency in Ecommerce Customer Service

When "Sam" from support is actually AI & lies to you: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘐 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘱 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵. Have you heard about the viral Cursor fiasco from last week? TL;DR "Sam" from support told customers about a policy that didn't exist— plot twist...Sam wasn't human, but an AI pretending to be one. As a support leader, I'm less concerned with the hallucination itself than with the troubling lack of transparency that compounded this situation. Incidents like these violate the foundational principles of modern support. Let's codify what should be unwritten rules ✍ 𝗠𝘆 𝗔𝗜 𝗚𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗫: 1. Always disclose when customers are talking to AI ↳ "𝘏𝘪, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘚𝘢𝘮, 𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘐 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵" 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘥𝘥 2. Design clear escalation paths to humans ↳ 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘹 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 3. Monitor AI responses for accuracy ↳ 𝘜𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘺 𝘈𝘟𝘐𝘚 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 4. Take responsibility for AI mistakes ↳ 𝘖𝘸𝘯 𝘈𝘐 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴—𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘱 This isn't about shaming one company. It's about recognizing that as AI becomes more integrated into support, we have a responsibility to maintain transparency. My team at Front uses AI tools daily—but we're crystal clear with customers about when they're talking to a human versus an AI. Wouldn't you want the same respect from brands you trust? P.S. If you value transparency in AI customer service, share this post to help spread the message ♻️

Reminder: If you’re obscuring important information from your customers, that’s not nudging. Or behavioral economics. Or choice architecture. It’s just deception. Google served me this AI Pro upgrade offer yesterday. It's clearly designed to make you focus on $0.49/mo vs $0/mo. What it obscures is that after the short trial, it's actually $1.99/mo vs $19.99/mo. So what's presented as a $0.50 difference is actually a 10X difference. …Here’s why this matters: Transparency builds trust. When the real cost hides in fine print, you risk annoying—and losing—your customers. Spotlight what counts. Ethical choice architecture means surfacing the information that really drives decisions (e.g., the post-trial price), not just the temporary discount. Design with integrity. Real choice architecture empowers users—it doesn’t sneak the catch in after they’ve clicked “yes.” Next time you craft an offer or an upsell, ask yourself: “Am I making it easier for people to choose wisely… or just easier for me to sneak past their radar?” Let’s use our behavioral science skills to create transparent, trustworthy experiences, not clever traps.

The secret to retaining customers? Just be nice. It sounds almost too simple, right? But in my experience, being nice—genuinely nice—has carried me through some of the toughest bumps on the road in my companies. Whether it’s a carrier issue, a product that isn’t quite hitting the mark, or a competitor outmaneuvering us, one thing has always kept our customers coming back: honesty, empathy, and being human. I’ve had moments where we were behind the curve. Our product wasn’t perfect. Competitors had the edge. But instead of running from those situations or making excuses, I leaned into them. I reached out to customers directly, stayed in constant communication, and sympathized with their frustrations. Sometimes, I even told them outright, “If I were in your shoes, I might switch too.” And guess what? That level of honesty and transparency made all the difference. It wasn’t about trying to sell them something or convincing them to stay; it was about being real. Here’s the thing: customers don’t expect perfection (even though it might seem like they do). What they really want is to feel valued, understood, and heard. When you can share the journey with them—the wins, the struggles, the progress—you create something much deeper than a simple business relationship. It becomes a partnership. And when you can say, “We’re not perfect, but we’re doing everything we can to get better,” it builds trust. That trust is what keeps them around for the long haul, even when competitors come knocking. At the end of the day, we’re all human. We all have bad days, slow weeks, or projects that didn’t go as planned. Why not meet your customers on that level? It costs nothing to be nice, but the returns are immeasurable. #ecommerce

This is how you run a company with transparency and (re)gain the trust of your users. Last month we launched a feature aimed at enhancing the user experience on UpdateAI. Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned and ended up making the experience worse for some users. Something that drives me up the wall is when companies (and people) don't just admit when they mess up. Here's what happened and what I did to follow our company values of transparency: THE ISSUE: I received a Slack message from a really valuable customer that they were unhappy with some new functionality. It felt invasive to them, and I don't disagree. Their feedback was not just a complaint, but a crucial learning opportunity for us. MY RESPONSE: - I told them that they were right. - I explained a benefit of that feature to them that we had in mind, but didn't sidestep the fact that the primary motivation of this feature was to help promote our product. - But I also used this discussion as an opportunity to gain more insight from the user. I got down to the root issue of it for them, and created a dialogue on prioritizing a rollback or change to the feature. - In creating a space to discuss the priority of this with them, I also brought them onto "my side" and implicitly set expectations. - Most importantly, I apologized with zero conditions. Manners are so important, and I think it's something that we as a society have started to let slip a bit. THE RESULT: - The customer felt respected and the issue was de-escalated. - Expectations on remediation were properly set. - I gained valuable customer insight. We can talk all day about #customerexperience mapping and playbooks, but I think the number one way to win trust, confidence, and loyalty in your customers is to be open and honest. What has been your experience with transparency in business? I’d love to hear your thoughts and stories in the comments. ----- #customersuccess, #saas