Yours or Mine?

Say I was to put a $20 bill (or a £20 note for my UK friends) on the table and offer the highest bidder the chance to win it on the flip of a coin. How much would you be willing to wager on the chance?

Views on gambling aside, logic would suggest a reasonable answer would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 dollars as that evens the odds of you taking my 20 while keeping yours at 50/50.

But say all you had was $20 to carry you to your next paycheck and you needed that money to buy milk for the kids. Would you still make the bet?

Conversely, say you want to buy theater tickets that cost $40, but only have $25 in your pocket. The show runs tonight only and there is no other way for you to get the extra $15. Might you consider bidding a little higher for a chance at not missing the show?

My point is this: It’s not really the price or cost of things that drives consumer behavior, but rather the value they place on those things. Yet driven no doubt by the economic downturn, it would seem both companies and consumers alike are totally obsessed with cost cutting and have completely lost sight of the total value proposition.

While I appreciate that eliminating unnecessary spending often makes sense, becoming obsessed with cost cutting, be that on the provider or consumer side, can only lead to a reduction in quality, and therefore the value of goods and services available.

Inevitably, this decline in value will further stall our economic recovery, increased pressure on our fragile environment and in the end, actually drive up real costs. In other words, it will cause a world of long term pain and little if any short term gain.

By my way of thinking, the sooner we curb our obsession with cutting costs and get back to focusing on value, the more of it we will create and the better off we’ll all be.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one!

For more on this topic, see my colleague, Ade McCormack's blog on Money Verses Value then return to this site by clicking on the back button.

To comment, or read the comments on this blog click on 'comments' beside the little envelope below. To read previous articles (this is #29), see the Blog Archive (lower right) and to become a Wavemaker Blogs follower, click on 'Follow' (just above Archive).

If you would like to be notified whenever a new Wavemaker blog topic is posted, just drop us an email at wmconsulting@live.com with "Blog Me" in the subject bar. We promise never to provide your contact details to anyone else and you can unsubscribe from this service at any time.

If you would like to know more about how Wavemaker Consulting can help your company improve the customer experience you provide, visit our Website, or email us at wmconsulting@live.com

In Memory Of An Old Friend

The other day I found myself reading through the obituaries in the local newspaper (sadly, people my age do that sort of thing) and I came across the following entry that I thought might be worth sharing:

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Mr. Com N. Sense, who was with us (on and off) for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in a mountain of bureaucratic red tape.

Mr. Sense will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: ‘the customer comes first!’ and ‘while good marketing may bring them in the door, it’s a positive customer experience that keeps them coming back!’

Com lived by simple, sales and service ethics (every customer deserves our attention and hospitality; never sell anything to anyone who has no need for it; always deliver what you promise) and grass route strategies (make it easy for the customer to do business with you and make it easy for your people to do business with the customer).

On those rare occasions when things went wrong on the sales & service front, it was Com who was there to show us that it’s not about who is wrong and who is right, but rather that what really matters is putting things right!

Com’s health began to deteriorate the day several service providers failed to acknowledge his existence as he entered the local branch of his bank. In fairness, they refused to make eye contact for fear he might expect them to leave the all-important work on their desks just to serve his needs. It declined further as a number of well intentioned, but somewhat overbearing rules and regulations were set in place. Reports from friends of being turned away from the bank because they had failed to make an appointment; being asked for references from other banks while trying opening an account, being told where and when they could do business, were but a few.

Com finally lost the will to go on after repeatedly trying to reach his bank to express his concerns from his sick bed. Rumor has it he was connected to an automated voice response system which, after numerous seemingly meaningless questions, redirected him to a line that rang and rang, but was never answered.

Com N. Sense was preceded in death by his daughter Responsibility, and his son Reason, but survived by his 3 ugly stepbrothers; It’s Not My Fault, That’s Our Policy and I'm Just Following the Rules. Com is also survived by his loving wife, Good. While understandably weakened by the loss of her husband, Good Sense is expected to make a full recovery and take up the cause where Com left off.

Memorial services for Com N. Sense will be held on Thursday at ‘The Church of Common Courtesy’ and all are invited to pay their respects. In lieu of flowers, Mrs. Sense has requested that going forward, we simply remember her husband each and every time we serve a customer.

To comment on this blog click on 'comments' beside the little envelope below. To read previous articles, see the Blog Archive (lower right) and to become a Wavemaker Blogs follower, click on 'Follow' (just above Archive).

If you would like to be notified whenever a new Wavemaker blog topic is posted, just drop us an email at wmconsulting@live.com with "Blog Me" in the subject bar. We promise never to provide your contact details to anyone else and you can unsubscribe from this service at any time.

If you would like to know more about how Wavemaker Consulting can help your company improve both the employee and customer experience you provide, visit our Website, or email us at wmconsulting@live.com