I expect to pay more… so please charge me more…
Posted in Service Management Update, Michael Wedemeyer on Nov 17th, 2008 No Comments »
I expect to pay more… so please charge me more… (as part of the Anti Service Management Framework)
I overheard a conversation the other day where an employer was leading the employee in a conversation regarding charging extra for using a credit card, even thought this was not policy. The “unspoken” message was loud and clear – if you can get away with charging them more for using a credit card… DO IT!!! And the customer accepted this….
This got me thinking… again… The charging and IT Accounting models for a service is a complicated process. However – a contributing factor is perception of value for a service in calculating cost. So – if the customer sees the service as valuable – you tend to charge more for this service. Normal practice as it balances out the more costly, but less “valued” services that you provide…
BUT…. What if you start to manage the pricing structure according to how much you can get away with????? If you can “demonstrate” that this service is valuable, requires a lot of administration, support, and there is a lot of “administration costs” associated with it – then it is reasonable that the customer will pay more for this – because they are use to, and expect, extra charges to be added at end… WIN WIN right????
IT Department budget goes up… customers perception of value goes…….. hmm… hard to say whether it goes up or down… My opinion – if we do this – it might just .. GO… and so might you…
Hmmm… I think there is something in that for all of us, don’t you?????
Till next time
Cheers from the team at The Art of Service
Michael
