On True Customer Value
On True Customer Value
The thing your think is your product is actually table stakes - all the things you don't see as your product are what actually matters.
One thing I’ve learned over the years - the thing you’re selling is often not the thing your customers are actually buying.
A restaurant sells food. The food actually being good is tablestakes. What a customer is buying when they pick a restaurant are a number of things that isn’t necessarily the food.
For instance, Dick’s Last Resort is a chain of restaurants with a huge following because their waiters are trained to be RUDE AF.
The experience (see video above)
The social status (how I look when I bring a date or a business partner there)
The Instagram moments (IG Search #sinemaselfie)
The service
The consistency. (Starbucks, anyone?)
The amenities
The ambiance
The bathrooms (yes, I’ve chosen one brewery over another because of how much detail they put into their bathrooms, and I wanted to show someone)
Think About A Night Out
Everyone has a favorite night out event. It might be an NBA game, it could be a night at the theater, or it could be a concert.
What do you love about these events?
For sure if you picked a basketball game, you’d like the basketball to be great basketball. But the night is marked with things that spark joy.
The hot dog the stadium is famous for (but you’d never eat anywhere else).
The kiss cam moments of hilarity.
Trying to catch a t-shirt shot out of a hand cannon. The buzz of the crowd. The drama of the event.
The celebrities spotted on the courtside seats.
In the end, it has very little to do about the actual basketball game.
It’s Not About Your Product
(If I had a dollar for every gym owner who told me their programming or fitness service was the best in town…)
The point here is many business owners (like you) think your business success is predicated on your core product or service.
If you run a gym, you might think your programming is everything. Spoiler alert - it’s not.
In reality - it’s everything else.
It’s how people are made to feel while in the gym. It’s the experiences they have. It’s the people they meet and the relationships and trust they build with coaches.
It’s clean sinks in the bathroom and free hairbands for the women who had to rush to the workout directly from work.
It’s making them feel proud they accomplished a goal, and hungry to set the next one.
Where is Your Focus?
Is your focus only on your core product? Or is it on all the other moments you can build into your business?