IS “WIN-WIN” THINKING MAKING YOU MISS OPPORTUNITIES?
When we speak of a “win-win” situation between marketer and customer, we usually mean that some sort of satisfying exchange has occurred between the two, with each side getting something of value from the other. Sounds positive, right? But is this really a customer experience home run?
Think about it for a moment. The deeper implication of “win-win” is that of a quid pro quo agreement on the part of the marketer. “I will do ‘X’ for you if you do ‘Y’ for me.” The marketer becomes “conditionally customer-centric.” He/she focuses on customer-centric initiatives only if they will deliver on an expected and quantifiable ROI. In this “win-win” framework, the marketer doesn’t even consider an initiative that might creatively answer a customer need but has no foreseeable payoff.
Now let’s talk about true customer centricity. That involves living in the customer’s shoes, not your own. Add value, and the customer will reward you handsomely, if not in direct predictable incremental sales then in “softer” paybacks such as repeat purchases over time, higher lifetime share of wallet and most importantly, positive word of mouth.
Here’s a personal example: while attending college, I worked part time as a desk clerk at a Holiday Inn near campus. Most nights during the week, the hotel would be totally booked. Good news for the hotel, not so good news for the weary traveler who’s been driving all day, doesn’t have a reservation and just wants a place to crash for the night. While it would have been perfectly acceptable to tell that traveler there were no rooms and apologetically send him back out into the night, our policy was to find that traveler a room. So we clerks would offer to get on the phone to other hotels and motels in the area and reserve a room for that traveler. Did we get a commission for reserving those rooms? No. Did we charge customers for finding them a room? No. Was there a guarantee we would ever see that traveler again? No.
We didn’t take the 5-10 minutes to book a room for him because we knew there was a buck in it for us. We did it because we understood what it was like to be in a strange town with three cranky kids in the car and desperate for a place to stay. It’s what we’d want a hotel to do for us.
While I can’t speak to the ROI of that policy, I can say that the hotel never lacked for business and we regularly received letters and cards from thankful customers who promised to stay with us in the future. And, oh, yes. Many of those travelers, once their accommodations were arranged, would feed their family of five at one of the hotel’s restaurants.
In short, consider doing the right thing, whether or not you can recognize a short-term payoff. It could be the bridge to customer loyalty you’ve been missing.
Posted by Mickey
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