Today is summer festival critique day, earlier I discussed the how brand clarity must be projected across all channels of customer interaction. This post addresses the whole notion of ambiguous pricing.
If more than one customer requires an explanation on the pricing on your sign, be it at a summer festival or in the restaurant, change it. The lasting memory of a customer transaction will not be happy if a customer thinks they are paying $4.00 for a large blended iced coffee when the price is actually $5.75. Case in point, a vendor had sign in large letters Iced Coffee sm - $3.00, large -$4.00, jumbo $5.75 on the right side of the board. The left side of the board read Smoothies and Blended Iced Coffee and listed the flavors. At the bottom in small print sm- $4.00, large $5.75, jumbo $8.00. Looking at the board I thought, a large blended iced coffee was $4.00 and was all set to order one. The customer in front of me had the same reaction. She ordered a large blended iced coffee thinking it was $4.00. When the clerk ask for $5.75 she pointed to the sign and said "it says $4.00", the clerk explained "that the iced coffee is $4.00, the blended iced coffee is $5.75 and I can put that in a small cup for you." Guess what, the clerk made that customer fell like "Cow Chips". Making customers feel bad about purchasing from you is not a sustainable business model. Yes you got the extra $1.75 in sales, however the future value of that customer is now ZERO, Zilch, Zip, Nada.
The sign was creating confusion which creates bad feelings. No business exists to create bad feelings. Fix your sign. This vendor is also another example of brand minefield issues because of the ambiguos pricing.
