As unfortunate as it is, some businesses need to downgrade what they give for free.
Let’s stick with the same example from yesterday. Suppose that this bar and grill that gives large and cool designed mugs to those who go there on their birthday had to downgrade. Suppose they have to make cuts in their budget to stay open. They decide to give away the rest of the large and cool mug supply and replace them with small, round cheap mugs that just have their logo on it.
Unlike upgrading what is free, downgrading what is free hurts the customers you haven’t yet gotten.
On the positive side, it makes those who were there to get the free large, cool designed mugs feel even better. However, this has two repercussions.
1. Feeling better about something doesn’t mean they will want to come back again.
2. Giving something awesome for free is as much about optimizing word of mouth marketing as it is about making someone feel good for coming to your bar and grill, and not someone else’s.
The gamut here is that downgrading what is free risks negative word of mouth. Imagine someone who got the large, cool designed mug on their birthday then invites someone else to the same bar and grill in two weeks to celebrate their birthday, only, neither knows that the bar and grill downgraded their birthday mugs.
You can imagine where this leads.
This leaves us with the question of how we can make downgrading what is free, work. After all, while upgrading is always an option, sometimes downgrading is not.
The answer is, when you can’t change the product to make it better (or when you’re forced to downgrade), change the delivery.
People talk more about what they experienced than what they received anyway.
Stay Positive & Over, Over, Over Deliver
Garth E. Beyer
Photo credit
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