In Dan Ariely’s TED talk, he explains the power of the Ikea Effect. The concept is this: If you can get the customers to do some of the work to create the final product/service, they become more loyal to it.
Ikea manufactures the furniture. You assemble it. As a result, the piece becomes more important than if it came fully assembled, without you needing to lift a single Allen Wrench.
In other words, we become invested in what we invest our effort in.
Don’t Deliver Turn-Key, Deliver 99.999% Turn-Key
So what does this mean to your business? Instead of delivering a turn-key service, have the client do a small first or final step.
Don’t do all the construction work. Have the customer break ground with a golden shovel. Have them fasten the final golden bolt.
Don’t serve your customer ice cream. Have them serve their own from a dozen flavors and two dozen toppings.
Don’t clean their entire office. Clean everything, but have them spray a final scented mist of their choosing into the air.
If they do a piece of the work – even a tiny itsy bitsy piece – they become invested in it. Them become invested in you.
I wonder what would happen if you had to do the last step of hamburger preparation at McDonald’s. Oh yeah, wait…. you DO have to do the last step. You put the ketchup and other additional condiments on, to make your burger just right.
There’s a great beer bar called The Scratch in Brisbane, Australia. They give you a taste test of all 5 beers on tap before you make your choice. The experience makes the whole thing 10x more enjoyable and after you’ve tasted the beer you don’t think twice about buying one. Also, they only serve home-brew style beer and make a point of not serving mainstream beers which is ironic because they are locateded in the shadow of the XXXX building (the largest brewery in Queensland).
I love it!
Excellent post and it really makes sense. Although back in my bachelor days, I probably didn’t buy into the Ikea example as I’m very lame at items that require assembly.
But I do remember as a child (60’s and 70’s) how much I wanted to work the soda machine and create my own concoctions. It wasn’t until I had my first job that the magic of the soda fountain lost it’s allure.
So true. I loved pouring and mixing sodas!