Netflix to Qwikster and Back: Bad Business Decisions That Haven't Been Fixed

COMMENTARY | I may be getting old, but I don't mind changes when they make sense. Many things in life really are "new and improved," such as writing this article on my computer rather than a typewriter. Sometimes companies make changes, however, when they might want to leave things alone. Netflix discovered this recently when they attempted to keep up with the ever-changing entertainment industry.

Netflix is moving away from DVDs, to focus on streaming video. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that, "Netflix's future is in the business of premium pay television delivered over the Internet," not in DVDs.

They raised prices and announced a new website, Qwikster, designed to operate the DVD side of the company. They killed Qwikster Monday after Netflix stocks fell and thousands of customers left.

While they didn't lower prices (promising future value), Netflix did listen to the collective outcry of dissatisfied customers who - among other things - wanted to keep the Netflix way it was on one simple, familiar site. Sometimes the "old way" is the best way to do business.

Here are a few other businesses I think could take a clue from Netflix's bad business decision:

Major financial institutions such as Bank of America adding fees on debit cards (without any added value). How many customers will rediscover local credit unions and smaller regional banks that play it old school?

Major airlines' charging fees for everything, from checked luggage, to "premium aisle and window seats," and now soda? Really? I guess going without clothes, squashed in the center seat, parched and hungry is the "new way." I know many who drive now rather than fly.

Facebook is another company changing in reaction to new business pressures from Google+. Is Facebook listening to the protests of users as they make changes to their well-loved platform, however? Yes, it's a free service, so how can we complain? Well, we just can, that's all.

And don't get me started on other great new ideas, and "improvements" of faster customer service, phone trees, self-serve retail lanes, Reality TV, cell phone plans, HMOs, or self-serve gas stations. Remember when stations used to clean your windshield and check your oil? Sorry, I digress.

There are some things in life that will never change -- death, taxes, and maybe Donald Trump's hairstyle. In the business world, though, change seems to be forever looming on corporate agendas. Sometimes it's good, but other times it spells disaster, especially when that business fails to listen to customers. I guess there are things I, and many people I know both young and old, who just like the "old way." Corporations of America, can you hear us now?

Laura Wrede, freelance writer, photographer, and longtime Bay Area resident, understands that it isn't just national news that residents in the Silicon Valley want to read. They want to know how these stories affect them. They also want to know what is happening in their own neighborhoods. Wrede offers a local news perspective for her neighbors throughout Santa Clara County.