Why Customers Loathe HBO Max and Love ChatGPT

Spring has officially sprung and, with it, a series of new headlines and updates in the customer engagement sector. Catch up on all you need to know here with CEI’s Weekly Wrapped.

1. A Big HB-NO to New Max Branding

Subscribers to HBO Max received good news this week—their subscription will soon include Discovery+ programming. This includes shows like Forensic Files, Flip or Flop, and Return to Amish.

With this additional entertainment, HBO Max has decided to drop the HBO and change its service name to “Max.” Unfortunately for the C-Suite executives at the team, customers are not happy with this “cleaner” name and many are questioning their loyalty to the service.

First, Max has no name recognition (unless, of course, you know someone named Max that works in television). Second, naming a streaming service after a person gives creepy connotations no one is comfortable with. Analyst Phil Mandelbaum writes on the topic: “Apparently JB Perrette, the president and CEO of global streaming and games for WBD, forgot about Cinemax (or “Skinemax,” as it came to be known) when he explained away the name change at an April 12, 2023, press event by saying HBO was ‘not exactly where parents would eagerly drop off their kids.’ I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t leave my kids with “Max,” either.” Indeed, it seems unlikely that renaming the service Max will attract more children.

Learn more with Customer Engagement Insider’s article, “Branding is a Big Deal. Nobody Told the Execs at HBO.”

2. A Love Story Between a Human and a Chatbot

As part of an experiment, Anita M. Harris asked ChatGPT to rewrite her dating profile. The bot lied about the woman’s age, added her interests, and created an astonishingly accurate portrayal of her. Taking it one step further, Anita asked ChatGPT to generate a response from an “ideal” match.

ChatGPT delivered. In fact, Anita and the match, David, hit it off so well in their AI generated conversation that they set up a date. Anita excitedly went to the date, curious to see if David or some David-representative would show up.

To her disappointment, he did not.

Anita writes: “The online conversation with David was better than others I’ve had in recent years; I wished I’d asked how long he’d been divorced and what book he was reading… It seemed very real.” Anita, it seems, began to develop feelings for a nonexistent man and mourned the breakup when the bot moved on from its David identity.

Is it still considered catfishing if you do it to yourself? And how far will these chatbots go to seem human? Read more on the New York Times’ article, “Uh-Oh, I Seem to Be Dating a Chatbot.”

3. Nearly 50% of Customers Say They’ll Boycott Their Favorite Brand

If your brand isn’t authentic with their value propositions, 39% of customers have no problem saying goodbye-- even if they’ve been a loyal customer from the beginning. If that statistic doesn’t scare you enough, 82% of consumers prefer a brand whose values align with their own and 75% of consumers have stopped shopping a brand “over a conflict in values.”

With customers more eager than ever to switch to a competitor’s solution, how can brands keep their customers happy?

Simple: Listen to them. Phil Mandelbaum suggests each business asks itself a series of questions: “Are we merely providers of a specific solution to a unique problem (if so, we have to be the undisputed expert), or are we industry insiders with extensive knowledge and experience? … Do we respond to complaints, listen to our customers, and showcase product improvements based on feedback?” If the answer is “no,” it’s time to make a change.

Learn more about how to keep your customers happy with CEI’s “Optimizing the Customer Journey Using Consumer Psychology” article.

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