Become the Only Game in Town

The story, dating from the early 1900s, credited with originating the term “the only game in town” sticks any recipient of that designation with negative associations: A traveler asks the hotel desk clerk to recommend a place to play some high stakes poker. The desk clerk says, “The bar next door has high stakes poker going all the time. But I’ll tell you that the dealer there cheats people blind.” “My goodness,” the traveler asks, “why do people from around here play poker there?” The clerk replies, “Well, it’s the only game in town.”
     Why do I suggest, then, that you aim to be the only game in town? Because the distinctiveness you achieve will bring you added business. In my opinion, the hotel desk clerk’s answer to the traveler was incomplete. People played poker at that bar because it was the only game around going on whenever you wanted to play, and people were willing to accept losing their money in order to have fun playing cards, drinking, and socializing. The customers kept coming back because they received value, even though, with being cheated blind, they probably wouldn’t describe themselves as high in customer satisfaction.
     The “only game in town” dynamic came to mind as I read a prepublication version of an article scheduled for the November 2010 issue of Journal of Marketing. Researchers now at Southern Methodist University, University of California-Riverside, and Boston College found that under certain circumstances, customer satisfaction has little effect on repurchase behavior. Because you as a retailer need to expend resources to achieve high customer satisfaction, that finding is an alert to ask where there might be better alternatives for you than working to achieve outstanding customer satisfaction.
     The answer: With products and services you provide and products you carry that are essential commodities—like automobile repair services and groceries—settling for less than ideal customer satisfaction might be most profitable for you. Assess if other tactics would be less expensive ways to keep shoppers coming. Maintaining convenient hours and always being in stock, for example.
     On the other hand, with luxury, pleasure-seeking products—such as high fashion—the convenient hours and in-stock positions are important, but they won’t compensate sufficiently for low customer satisfaction. To be the only game in town, you’ll need to do it all.

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