Recently a cover story for the USA TODAY newspaper featured an article on fast-food drive- thru restaurants. More than half of the money spent at fast food restaurants is sold through the drive-thru window. The reason is that Americans want convenience.
Starbucks, the high-end coffee “experience” is even testing drive-thru windows. This surprised me because Starbucks is always promoting the “experience.” That has been the compelling reason to pay more for a cup of coffee. Will the product be good enough with out the “experience?” I’m willing to predict that it will. Not only is the product – the coffee – an excellent and high quality product, we all want convenience.
This is crossing over to the other side. Customers not only want convenience. Vendors do as well. I’m finding that certain suppliers of service and products won’t sell outside of a particular area, not because they can’t properly service the customer. It is because it is inconvenient. Someone I just talked to said they wouldn’t meet with me because I am located just a little too far away – by like just ten minutes. It wasn’t about even paying him more money. It was the hassle factor. He didn’t want to deal with traffic. In short, he wanted convenience.
I used to ask my clients how easy they thought they were to do business with. I would ask them specific reasons. It has always been about great service, response times, knowledgeable people, etc. Some mentioned convenience, but it wasn’t high on the list. Convenience was just one of the little things that made them easy to work with. However it is time to think differently. Convenience no longer should be just one of the things to describe how good we are. It should be a total strategy.
Start thinking about your “Convenience Strategy.” Look for ways to make your customers’ or clients’ experience with you easy and CONVENIENT!
Shep Hyken, CSP is a professional speaker and author who works with companies who want to develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees. For more information on Shep's speaking programs, books, tapes and learning programs please contact (314) 692- 2200. Email: shep@hyken.com Web: www.hyken.com