⚖️ Your Customers Hate Information Asymmetry
Disrobed.
On the phone.
Making a very embarrassing request.
"Yes, this
is Mr. Baer in room 717. I was wondering if you could tell me how to turn on the shower?"
This was 15 years ago, in Las Vegas.
In scramble mode to get to an early AV check for my keynote speech, I sought a quick shower.
But I was confronted with a convoluted and discombobulating array of dials, knobs, and switches more suitable for a
Russian submarine.
I tried. Believe me, I tried. But I could NOT get water to emerge.
Sheepishly, I called the front desk for help making WATER APPEAR, a skill I had, to that point, essentially mastered.
Her reply astonished me.
"Oh, that's quite alright Mr. Baer. We get several calls about this each day."
How many times do your customers have to experience information aysmmetry before you solve the imbalance?
Customers hate not knowing.
It creates frustration. Angst. Anxiety. Ennui.
This Vegas resort knew full well that the shower controls were too complex, and instead of either changing the plumbing or at least making a sign, they just ignored it. Day after day after day.
This is a dangerous game.
Eventually, your customers will not stand for not knowing. They will seek an alternative where they can be more consistently in the loop. And it doesn't matter if it's a shower, a software package, a homebuilder, or anything in-between.
Which is why I was OVERJOYED in Tampa recently, when I went in my bathroom at the Epicurean Hotel, to see that at least one lodging company gets it!
