You may not have heard about switching costs before, but you’ve certainly experienced them. In this article I’ll explain what switching costs are and how they can help you retain clients.
What we learn from Apple
I have a Creative MP3 player, and I recently bought a Samsung player for my son. I bought my Creative a few years ago. It was priced at a similar price point to the comparable iPod, but had a couple of extra features the iPod didn’t - FM radio and a voice recorder. It had the same memory capacity, better video display and these two extra features. Yet the iPod outsold it.
You see, when you buy an iPod, you’re not just committing to the player. You also commit to the iTunes store. And once you commit to the iTunes store, you’re locked in. Because up until this year, the songs sold through iTunes had digital rights management (DRM) restrictions which were designed to stop these songs being shared. But because the songs were encoded in a format unique to Apple, it made it difficult for an iPod user to replace their iPod with anything but an iPod. Why? Because the songs won’t play on the new player unless it’s an iPod.
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Tags: Accountant·Apple·client·cost·differentiate·iPod·iTunes·switching cost
In this blog I write for people who sell professional services - people who sell knowledge or expertise. I frequently talk about how this can be somewhat intangible to the client and how we need to find ways to make the product more real. Ways this can be done include building trust with the clients and finding ways to illustrate your value. I frequently see examples of how to do this from many different sources - not just from people selling services. In this article I’ll tell you what I learnt from our electrician.
We need to have some electrical work done around our house and my wife related a conversation she had with the electrician.
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Tags: marketing·professional services·service·trust·Value·word of mouth
On my drive into work today I noticed an electronic sign out the front of a business that alternated between displaying the time and the current temperature. You’ve probably all seen something similar wherever you are in the world.
There’s a few around the city where I live, and I’m always fascinated about whether they’re accurate. I couldn’t tell you if they displayed the correct temperature, as I can only guess what it is when I’m out driving, but I can tell if the time is correct or not.
You’d be surprised how many of these clocks display the incorrect time. They may be a few minutes fast or slow, or sometimes they’ve forgotten to change the clock for daylight savings time so it’s either an hour fast or slow.
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Tags: client expectations
I was reminded today about how much the internet has changed our lives.
Information
You want to find information, it’s all there. More information is available for free today than ever before in history. Whatever you’re interested in, you can Google any questions you have and you’ll be able to access a whole range of information that is specific to your topic.
So are we any better off because all this information is available? Maybe not.
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Tags: marketing·Service Offer·tangible·Value
