This post on "Broken Window Theory" applied to business and taking care of business critical details (clean counter-tops in a restaurant for instance), to maintain customer loyalty makes me think about how it may apply to a whole industry. In many ways some industries are broken, or breaking, because of the cumulative 'broken windows' created by the industry group as a whole.
Deep discounting, lowering the value of the service, cut-throat tactics, incredible diversity in fee structure (Stock images that cost between $.50 and $10,000 plus for instance?)... an industry that has no meaningful parameters for value and service expectations...
Scary huh?
But I also believe that just because an industry can appear to be breaking, that doesn't mean that all of the practitioners of that industry should just throw up their hands and break their own window. I also believe that broken windows can be fixed, one pane at a time. One at a time. And with great care.
Brand Autopsy: Broken Windows. Broken Business.: "According to Levine, broken windows are telltale signs to customers that a business doesn’t care, that it is poorly managed, and or it has become too big and arrogant to adequately deal with little details.
He warns businesses that customers draw wide-ranging conclusions based upon their perceptions of the broken windows they find. These negative perceptions will undermine a business as they can turn once highly-satisfied customers into very-dissatisfied customers who choose take their business elsewhere."
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