Can you Uberize Your Business?
Every time I travel, I have a choice between a cab and an Uber (or Lyft). Often the cabs are sitting right outside and yet I’ll wait for an Uber. Why is that? What did Uber do to disrupt their industry and what can you learn from it so you can do the same in yours?
Listen to this new, 7-minute episode to get some ideas how you can make your business indispensable to your clients.
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– Can you Uberize your business? Listen to this episode and find out. Hi, it’s Alan Berg, and welcome back to another episode of “The Wedding Business Solutions” podcast. I just got back from another trip, and it reminded me of a chapter in one of my books, “Wit, Wisdom & The Business of Weddings,”: “Can you Uberize your business?” And I don’t think I’ve spoken about this on the podcast yet, where think about what our options are for transportation when we’re in a particular town. So in this case, I went to San Diego and the hotel did not have an airport shuttle. There were taxis waiting right outside, but yet we called an Uber or a Lyft, whichever one you prefer on that.
Why? The taxis are right there, why did I call the Uber? Well, for me, there’s a bunch of different reasons. The convenience of it, the fact that they already have my credit card so there’s no transaction in the particular, in the vehicle. If you didn’t have a great ride and you didn’t tip the driver, they’re not going to know about it ’til afterwards, I guess, and the ratings and things like that. But it’s just the convenience factor of it. They’ve just made it so easy. I’ve had issues with different rides. This particular one, we had an issue. My wife thinks she left her sunglasses in the car. We’re able to contact the driver theoretically through the app. When the driver didn’t contact us, I can get ahold of somebody at Uber. Think about trying to get ahold of a cab company and, you know, you left your glasses in a cab and how you going to find out, right? Do you even know which cab it was? You paid cash. You’d have no idea.
So they’re doing things like that to make themselves indispensable to us. What are you doing in your business to make yourself indispensable to your clients? What are you doing that makes you the frictionless choice? And I’ve spoken about this, actually had Shep Hyken on the podcast. He’s one of the leading customer service experts in the world. He has a book called “The Convenience Revolution,” one of many books of his. “The Convenience Revolution” talks about reducing the friction, and what are we doing in our businesses? What are you doing, what am I doing to make it easier to do business with us? One of the things that I’ve done is there’s a page on my website. It’s not hidden, but you’d have to, you know, have to know where to find it from certain other pages. But it’s an info page, an information page, where everything that somebody would need that hired me to come and speak or for training, they would have there. My introduction for speaking, my bios, short bio and a longer bio, my head shots, my logos, my book covers, my social handles, the way I want the room set up, my A/V needs. It’s all on this one page. So when somebody says, hey, Alan, could you send me a headshot? I give ’em the link. Could you send me a logo? I give ’em the link. I’ve made it easier for them and easier for me, and then I say to them if there’s something that you need that’s not here, just let me know and then I get it over to them. I’ve had people say to me that I’m just so easy to do business with. Right, because at my price point if I’m hard to do business with, people would not do business with me.
One of the things that has people paying more for you or for me is the fact that we’re easier to do business with, that we’re anticipating the needs of the customer, that we’re listening and we’re understanding the results that they want and providing them, and we’re charging for that value. But going back to Uberizing our businesses, what are you doing in your business that is going to make people choose you over somebody else, because they felt you were the better, more convenient, frictionless choice for that, the indispensable choice? And I know we don’t get a lot of repeat business necessarily in the industry. You could get referrals obviously, but not repeat from someone. Well, if you’re doing bar mitzvahs, or quinceañeras, or things like that you could be getting repeat. Schools and corporations, you could be getting repeat.
So let’s think about that. If you’re doing corporate work, why do they keep coming back to you when there’s always a cheaper solution? How do you make yourself indispensable to them so that they’re going to come back to you when somebody else reaches out to try to get their business, and has a lower price and they say, “No, I’m going to still go with you and I’m going to spend more money with you?” And that’s the key. We spend more money because we perceive the value to be better. Think about a cab versus an Uber, right? We’re going to get to the same place. No matter what, we’re going to get to the same place. But I might spend the same money, I might spend less money, I might even spend more money to use that Uber or that Lyft because of certain factors that they’ve done to make it easier for me. Now some cab companies in some cities, they’re trying to come up with their own apps and things to to make it just as convenient as Uber. But what are they doing?
If you’re in Las Vegas and you get in a cab and you want to use a credit card, there’s a $3 surcharge for using your credit card. $3, no matter how far you went or not. Well, am I going to use a cab in Vegas? No, because I use my credit card or my debit card with Lyft or Uber, and there’s no surcharge over there. So why should I pay $3 to a cab to get the same place? They’re adding friction. They’re not taking it away. The same could probably be said of some businesses in our industry. You know, who among us likes to pay a surcharge for using a credit card? I’m going to say nobody. Who among us charges a surcharge? Many people. Well, if you don’t like getting one but you’re going to charge one, are you adding friction to the process? Could you possibly be losing a customer or losing a referral because you’ve added friction to that transaction, and that whole experience with that customer?
I’ve said this many, many times where I’ve priced myself that if people do pay me by credit card, I expected it. And when they don’t, I feel like I’ve made that 3% instead of it cost me when they do use one, right? And then I use certain services like Maroo so I have no fee on my debit cards and no fee on my ACHs at all. So now I can let someone use certain types of digital transactions, and it’s not costing me, no friction to them, no friction to me. There you go. But if somebody hands me a credit card at an event or somebody wants to pay me a deposit or a balance on their credit card, I don’t go, oh no, sorry. It’s going to cost you. I say, thank you very much, and I take their money. So I’m not adding friction.
So once again, think about your industry, think about your competitors, think about the way you do business, but also think about the way you as a customer are having other businesses do business with you, and times that they’ve added friction, made it harder, made it less convenient as opposed to an Uber or a Lyft where they’ve made it more convenient for you. And you’ve said, you know what? I’m going to go with that. Even if it cost me the same, even if it cost me more, I’m going to go with that other option because of these other factors that have made it indispensable for me. So can you Uberize your business? Think about it and let me know.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected]. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:
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- YouTube: www.WeddingBusinessSolutionsPodcast.tv
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sGsuB8
- Stitcher:
- Google Podcast:
- iHeart Radio: https://ihr.fm/31C9Mic
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