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Seth Godin’s a really clued-up guy, but sometimes his pearls of wisdom are a bit……..BFO-ish?.
His post “What to do with special requests” is a case in point.
“Let the customer decide” is his argument.
A bike shop is swamped with work – a tuneup takes a week and costs $39.
Someone needs it done in 3 days.
Do you turn him down or do you do him a favour, but charge him a premium for being a preferred customer?
You get the drift… obviously the latter.
Nothing new, though.
That’s what Fedex/UPS/DHL based their original business model on (never noticed that there’s a premium for overnight shipping?) and it’s what we used to do with overnight translations. It’s also at the core of ANY revenue management concept.
In fact, it’s what any business will do with a scarce commodity – in this case, resources and time.
It actually believe it’s frequently referred to as “Supply and Demand”…
You Must Be From Away 