Mike Michalowicz argues that customers undervalue solutions handed to them completely finished. He points to Dodge Viper's practice of requiring buyers to mail in a personal photo during the build process, which increases ownership and loyalty. His fix: leave one small, purposeful step for the customer to do.
Welcome to Honor Roll. And now here's your host, Mike Michalowicz. What we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly. Thomas Paine. Circa whenever Thomas Paine was alive. Now, I don't know if Thomas Paine was a Frenchman. No, French. No French. A British man or an American. I don't know. But I do know this. He was a massive patriarch. And man did he. Patriarch, patriot. He probably was a patriarch too, to many a child. You know what I'm saying? But he was a patriot. And I'll tell you this, he nailed it. He was right. First, before we talk how this applies to your business, we'll talk about my corporate partners, because I esteem them very, very heavily, which I think I just insulted my partners. Okay, Skype. Thank you very much. Love you, Dex. Digital. Love you. Love you. Did I say American Express? Did I say Skype? I don't think I said Skype. Love you. Thank you for being my premier partners. I esteem you heavily. So when it comes to your business, if your customers get get what you offer, they don't put much value in it, even if they paid for it. And you deliver your turnkey solution, they're like, so make them work for it a little bit. There was a cool thing that the Viper factory did. That's the race car. Not race car. Viper, Dodge Viper. When you ordered a Dodge Viper, they would ask you to mail in your picture. I know it sounds very insignificant. It's a small, easy step to do. But then as every step, step went along of constructing the car your picture was in and they were sending you pictures back, you had to make a little effort and you had a greater ownership in the car. Great retention rate on the Vipers. Yeah. So what can you do to not be 100% turnkey, but to be 99.9999% turnkey? Have the customer take a little bit of effort and they will steam you heavily if that's what you want. They'll value you more is what I'm saying. Thomas Paine rules. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Chuckle Hut historical comedian Mike McAllowith. So I consider myself a little bit of a history buff. History buffoon. And I want to share some history tips with you. Thomas Paine. I don't know if you knew his nickname was Big Big Pain. I think someone laughed somewhere when the Declaration of Independence was signed by all those people, including John Hancock. I don't know if you knew. John Hancock's name is John Hand. Tom Payne, being the jokester he is, added the word cock. At the end. Okay, let's see if we can get you to laugh on this last one. Knock, knock. Who's there? Thomas. Thomas who? Thomas English muffins. Why Thomas English muffins? Because anything else would be a pain. Sorry about that, folks.
