Offering Consumer Convenience
Should your business offer other consumer conveniences beyond your own line of product or services?
Today as I walked past a large office building, a young lady was asking the front desk if she could borrow the phone quickly as her cell has just died. The person at the front desk quickly redirected her to the pay phone down the street rather than having her make a call from the 3 phones that are just sitting there.
Which, prompted me to think of how many times I’ve seen the signs “washrooms are for paying customers only”, “no change” or “no public washroom”. If you are a business owner with a store front, would you:
- have one of those signs?
- deny the requests as they come up but do not have a sign?
- not have a sign and grant those requests?
I wasn’t the young lady affected in the above story and it was a building I frequently visit because I like their product/service. However, all of a sudden I felt really negative towards them. Why couldn’t they have let the girl make a call? I’m sure there are always justified reasons such as:
- impeding normal business practice
- preventing fraud (in very select cases)
- eliminating straggling foot traffic from the lobby
… but do those reasons / benefits outweigh the downside?
That’s my thought for today. Let me know in the comments what you think.
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It doesn’t matter what line of business you’re in, stretching out common courtesy to current/prospective clients will always bag you a spotlight. Ofcourse, you have to assess the risk you’re putting yourself (and your business) into. For example, I’ve seen restaurants lose customers just because they had a sign “washrooms for paying customers”; on the flip side I’ve seen some gain customers because they allowed by-passers to use their washrooms.