How much extra for nice?

sethgodin.typepad.com

I think there's a huge gap between what people are willing to pay for nice (a lot) and what it would cost businesses to deliver it (almost nothing).

Godin is crazy if he thinks it costs business "almost nothing" to deliver nice. Keeping customer-facing employees behaving in a noticeably "nice" manner is not cheap at all, or easy to manage.

You can have a smaller 'premium team', who you select from your existing team for competence and niceness. You then make it part of the job ("have a nice day") using existing procedures.

Interestingly, this would also have the effect of making it almost guaranteed you'll get someone surly if you don't pay the premium.

As a customer, I don't think I like the idea. But I think it could be made to work.

For me, it sounds like an excuse for buying expensive services. Oh, I'm not a snob, I don't buy social capital... I enjoy nice people.

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