So this guy brings in a grandfather clock—-a family heirloom—-to a repair shop because the clock has neither ticks nor tocks. The repairman spends just short of three minutes carefully looking over the clock, listening to the clock, feeling the gears inside the clock, and it even appears that he's smelling the case. Then the repairman folds his hand into a fist, sharply knocks the left top side of the clock case, hands the ticking clock back to the customer, and says, "That will be $80, sir."
It takes a few seconds for the guy to wipe the smile off his face. He's thrilled the clock is working again. Finally, he musters up a scowl to go along with saying to the repairman, "Where do you get off charging me $80 for simply tapping the side of my clock?"
The repairman nods, as though he's heard this sort of thing before. He answers, "Oh, for tapping the side of the clock, I'm charging you $5. The other $75 is for knowing where to tap."
Then the repairman remembered reading about consumer behavior research conducted at the University of Singapore and University of Toronto. The researchers found that when service duration is shorter than the customer expected, the customer thinks the service is inferior.
So the clock repairman says to the guy, " You didn't need to stand here for a long time waiting for me to fix the clock. You didn't incur the time, expense, and bother it would be if I'd said, 'Leave the clock with me and come back in a week.'"
And the guy with the clock understood.
If questions come up about your fee for quick services, do you remind your customers how quicker service is better?
Unless you're a massage therapist, of course.
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