Give them less and they’ll love you more.

I was in Atlanta for a conference recently. The hotel we were in had a very innovative approach to service. They wanted to take it away. The Atlanta Sheraton was offering reduced housekeeping service with an incentive to get less. They wanted to reduce your room cleaning! And they were prepared to make it worth your while.

You had the option to send the housekeepers packing. And they made it really simple for you to do it. Each day there was a card slipped under your door. If you hung this card on your doorknob by 2am that evening, the night staff would reward you with a $5 discount at the in house shops and restaurants. Brilliant!

Think of all the financial implication of just that one innovative initiative. The hotel saves on the cost of housekeeping services, reduces their laundry expenses while increasing traffic to in-house retailers resulting in increased sales. A wonderful linking strategy for their customer and a financial win for several aspects of their business. And really the $5 incentive cost them nothing while give good value to their patrons. In this case, less is really more for everyone.

Nobody is forcing the customer to participate. The hotel gave their patrons the option to opt-in to the program. but those who are more interested in the environment and saving money then having a pristine room are motivated to participate.

Is there a natural link to your customers’ intrinsic motivation? Is there packaging or other ‘extras’ that do not provide real value to them? Things that they would prefer NOT to have in exchange for something that is more meaningful to them. And ultimately drives business to another profit center.

Reduce, reuse or recycle some of your creative thinking to increase your innovative competitive edge.Think about what you are giving away as part of your product or service offering. Is there something that is costing you more than it’s worth to your customer? Is there something that they would be happy to sacrifice in exchange for something with a higher perceived value?

What service or product innovation has your company initiated that saved you money and gave your customers more of what they really want?