Paying for customer service

Grant Leboff: So Adrian, one of the things that you bring out in the book, which I think is important, almost as a reminder for people, is that we're sort of all driven to make things cheaper, and make things more efficient. And one of the things you say in the book is people will pay more for better service. Adrian Swinscoe: Yup. Grant Leboff: I would just like you to expand on that, because I think it's something that people should remember. Adrian Swinscoe: Well, yes. I think what I find fascinating is there is, like you say, there is this huge pressure to make things cheaper and so that it arrives faster and so on and so forth. But yet, there's a whole bunch of research… that did it that said about 85% of people will pay for better service, and they will pay maybe 5, 10, 15% more for a better service. And so the research is there, and the evidence is there to support that, but if you ask somebody intuitively: "Would you like to take rock-bottom prices and with no service, i.e., you just get treated like cattle through a process. Or, would you like to pay a little bit extra and not get treated so much like cattle but get shown around and aided and helped". So on and so forth. And people will pay for, take the better service option. What's also fascinating is that, in a more recent example, over the last couple of years, Ryanair [UK budget airline] who's been vaulted for being this price leader in all the markets that they're in, £9 flights, and so on and so forth. Michael O'Leary talking about, "We'll make people pay for the goods and the toilets and things". Well they learnt a hard lesson that they can only push people so far and then they can start to push back. And then, they've now embarked on this journey around... They still want to be price leaders, but they want to stop ticking people off. But that's not Michael O'Leary’s language, if you know what I mean. And actually, that process of just making the whole experience a bit smoother, a bit more pleasurable, a bit more helpful, is actually just added rocket fuel to their sales. Yes, but they've also been able to add additional extras onto that as well. And what I think is important to understand is that cheaper isn't necessarily always better, cheaper isn't necessarily always going to win. Actually, you have to figure out what your market is, what your market wants, and realize that actually people like a bit better service, and are willing to pay for it. Grant Leboff: And so, do you think there are people watching this, that actually, if they think about having a premium service... Adrian Swinscoe: Yup. Grant Leboff: You're adding a premium aspect to whatever they do, where it's appropriate… Adrian Swinscoe: Sure. Grant Leboff: Actually it's a great way of getting a greater share of wallet from customers and at the same time, it's kind of win-win, leaving your customers actually more satisfied. Adrian Swinscoe: Exactly. And I think that one of the things that I would also say is to say you know what, try to actually get your customers involved, they'll tell you what they want. They'll tell you what they're willing to pay for. Don't do any, you know, eliminate the guess work. Figure out who your target customers are, figure out if you've got some existing customers that could potentially be premium customers and go and ask them, and say "If we can make this better, how could we make this better, what would we need to deliver, and what would you be willing to pay for it?". So, you don't actually have to sit in your office and dream up all these great ideas. Go out and talk to people. Talk to your existing customers. They'll tell you exactly kind of what you need to know in order to deliver that better service or that premium offer, that can increase engagement and loyalty, and retention, and longevity, you know... The answers are there, you just need to go and look for them. There may be small changes to the spoken word in this transcript in order make it more readable.