Observe Risks of Your Obsolescence

Satisfy your customers, but not completely, some might say. Consider the retail services category of matchmaking. Researchers at University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and INSEAD claim there’s a fundamental conflict of interest between businesses like eHarmony and their clients: If the matchmaking is too good, members will cement a relationship and discontinue their paid subscriptions. A parallel conflict would be suspected in job-hunting sites. As soon as you find the perfect fit between you and an employer, you terminate use of the service.
     Another INSEAD research collaboration, this one with Boston Consulting Group, explores other examples of a product, service, or provider becoming obsolescent for a customer. Appliance retailers and residential real estate agents are no longer needed for an extended time once the purchase of the refrigerator or the home is completed. Customers for smoking cessation aids stop being customers if the product is sufficiently effective. Purchases of pureed baby food stop when the ultimate consumer gets older, regardless of how well the product fulfilled its objectives.
     The advice is to recognize the risks and plan to avoid the obsolescence.

• Broaden the range of interest in your services. Job search customers could be encouraged to continue their subscriptions in order to stay current on what’s available in order to plan their next career move. Matchmaking services can appeal to shoppers looking for a succession of dating companions rather than settling into a search for a marriage partner. Consumers from cultures accustomed to arranged marriages might be most comfortable with meeting a range of promising prospects from which a choice can be made. The Ashley Madison tag line—Having An Affair Made Easy—indicates there is even a market for matchmaking among those who are already married, although you might choose not to exploit that one. 
• Provide a progression path. Gerber welcomes its eaters who have outgrown pureed to move on to a line which encourages the use of utensils. Appliance retailers can offer bargain models. Misrepresenting the durability of items you sell is bad business. But offering low-priced versions which are not designed to last as long as the traditional models provides a path for economically challenged consumers to get started and then upgrade as their financial situation improves. 
• Encourage satisfied customers to recommend their friends to you and to recommend those friends recommend you to their friends. Weak links in referrals nicely augment the strong links. 

For your success: Retailer’s Edge: Boost Profits Using Shopper Psychology

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