Imagine if your beloved church suddenly changed its policy and started locking out members who weren’t fully tithing. (And yes, I’ve heard of churches that shamefully do that). That’s what Netflix has done by removing its password-sharing feature from the streaming service. It’s a move that could potentially cost them customers, in the long term, as many users feel betrayed by the company for taking away a feature they paid for. Let's explore this further.

Who doesn’t love Netflix? I certainly do. When I was still living in the Philippines, I remembered the joy I had when Netflix launched there. So many shows were at my fingertips! Plus, who can forget the powerful new concept of binge-watching? Netflix has been one of the most successful streaming platforms, with millions of subscribers worldwide. However, they recently made a business decision that could have far-reaching negative implications for their future; they started experimenting with removing the password-sharing feature from their platforms. This move is akin to a church violating its congregation’s trust and could have lasting repercussions for Netflix. Let’s explain why this decision was shortsighted and how it could negatively impact Netflix.

The Cost of Breaking Trust
Netflix has broken a sacred trust with its consumers by removing the password-sharing feature, which just many years ago they praised with their “Love is sharing a password” tweet. As any churchgoer knows, loyalty is built on trust—if you can’t trust your church, chances are you won’t be back next Sunday. In a world struggling with inflation followed by the consumer’s fatigue with the streaming wars, it’s normal to expect customers to feel betrayed by Netflix and think this is another shameless money grab at their expense. We’ve already seen people declaring on the net that they won’t renew their subscriptions when the password-sharing prohibition is finally rolled out in their countries.

This decision puts Netflix at risk of alienating many of its customers who have been used to sharing their passwords with their loved ones. Furthermore, it makes existing customers feel like they are thieves stealing content by sharing their passwords with those who aren’t paying for the service. Using guilt to manipulate customers into paying additional fees could backfire dramatically on Netflix. After all, when you sign up for a subscription service, you expect certain benefits to be included in that package – and many people feel like having access to password sharing is one of those benefits. By taking it away without warning, it feels like Netflix is breaking a sacred trust with its consumers – something no business should do if they want to maintain customer loyalty. Ultimately, this move can make customers run to different streaming services for a better deal.

With password-sharing, the long-term strategy should focus on what Netflix is good at, producing content. Subscribers are complaining about the quality of the shows. How many shows have I watched that ended abruptly without knowing what happened to those characters? People stay for the mythology, and these shows are the mythology that people invest their time and energy in.

Removing password sharing from its roster of features could solve a short-term problem but could lead to a bigger one down the road. Customer reaction thus far has been adverse, and consumers will start leaving the church of Netflix for more welcoming streaming services.

But when we implement change, let’s consider the people we serve. Let’s factor in our sacred trust with our customers and see if this change can break their trust in us. If so, our task is to see how we can adjust the change to benefit us while protecting our customers' confidence in our companies.