Revealing the Businessman’s Vacuum
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The trouble with owning a unique or high tech product is that you often have to go out of your way to maintain or buy accessories for it. Take Natalie’s Electrolux vacuum for example. Today she had to drive 20 minutes across town to purchase replacement bags for it. Joel and I also share the joy of having to order filters for our Filter Queen; they brag about not using bags, but you still have to replace the filters. (Yep, that’s filter(s) – plural) It makes me feel like I myself have been sucked into the vacuum and I’ve often thought of just buying a Dyson and forgetting about the whole thing.
But I have to give it up to these companies. They’ve strategically thought of a way to keep you coming back to them. Once you’ve purchased their product you become a repeat customer for life, or at least for the life of the product. It’s a genius marketing plan on their part.
I’ve seen use some of the same techniques. Once you from them, you have to buy their lock and you have to use their insurance. (And let’s not forget the infamous $15 admin fee.) It’s an easy way to rack up some extra profit from each renter. While these one-time fees are much different from having to repetitively buy filters or bags each year, they serve the same goal– adding to the sale.
McDonald’s does it, Best Buy does it, and even furniture salesmen do it. So, if everyone is doing it, does that make it reasonable for your business to do it to? Consumers put up with a lot of hidden fees. Is there a black and white boundary of understandable fees or is there a grey area in the middle?
Written by: Sarah Little, TQA Executive and owner of a very needy vacuum.
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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.
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