Customers are in a hurry. Have you ever noticed how the post office capitalizes on that? For an additional charge, they will speed things up. If you want to send a large envelope in three to five days, you'll probably spend about fifty cents. If you need it there in two days, it can go Priority Mail and cost you around four dollars. If you just can't wait, they'll send it overnight for about fifteen dollars. What's the difference? The sense of urgency.
Can you do the same thing? Do you have opportunities to get your customers' work done faster for a small additional charge? Can you stop your normal processes and do it on a special-needs basis? More and more businesses are earning and justifying a priority charge for extra service. For example, your dry cleaner, printer, delivery service, tailoring shop, and caterer may all have two price schedules—one for regular service and one for express service.
ACTION ITEM
Identify where you can take advantage of offering something better, quicker, and faster for an additional charge. One manager has a sign in his office that says: “Good, fast, and cheap. Pick any two.”
One Memphis electric-motor manufacturer solved an urgency problem that was constantly interrupting his production line by adding a same-day charge of 25 percent. He quickly found that customers didn't mind paying the additional charge if they really needed their items quickly, but they dropped their demands if it wasn't really necessary. His competitors refused to offer that kind of service. By developing two service schedules, he soon resolved his production-line problem. In addition, it earned him a lot of new customers who not only come to him for their emergency work, but who now come to him for their regular needs as well.
TAKEAWAY
Customers want options—even at a slightly higher
cost. They will probably welcome the opportunity
to get the service and delivery they really want.