I love the show Two Broke Girls…LOVE IT! It pushes the envelope in a way that no other network show does, just as network TV struggles to find its place on the dial.
But you came here for tampons, or marketing…or both, so here goes!
During a recent show, one of the two broke girls got pretty upset when she found out that the owner of the diner she worked in raised the price of a tampon from .25 to .75 in the vending machine in the ladies room.
When she launched into her explanation as to why .75 was too much, she said something that struck a major chord with me.
Don’t take advantage of people during a desperate situation!
Now, this entire post may make some of you a bit uneasy, but I have a daughter, and I buy tampons and hold purses too, so get over yourselves!
I say all that being happily in tune with my feminine side!
But I have no idea what it is like to be walking down 5th Avenue and suddenly realize I just got my period. And to make matters worse, it might be rent/mortgage week and I may be broke, and I NEED to be able to buy what I need to care for the situation with some spare change in my purse.
The same can be said for contractors
I can’t tell you how many pre-interviews I do with contractors who tell me they were able to charge whatever they wanted 5 years ago, or that they could ignore the jobs they didn’t want, the estimates they didn’t want to drive to simply because they could. They could charge the .75 cents for their tampons and someone was going to pay it.
But just like the girl in the show, people will let you know when they feel like they are being taken advantage of. And in today’s world of social media and the power of the “Like” button, you should be very aware if you are stepping out of line when it comes to pricing and/or local traditions that homeowners have become accustomed to.
Things like charging for design, offering a free quote but charging for drive time or any other practice that isn’t commonplace in the market will get people pissed.
Why?
Because these are the types of things that send people to scream from the rooftops of their social graphs, bitching about how they got robbed by “insert contractor name here” on Facebook, Yelp, Twitter or Foursquare, and the list of forums people have to rip you on grows every day.
So don’t take advantage of the poor girl who got her period, and don’t take advantage of Mrs. Jones just because you can. If for no other reason…Karma is a bitch, and the word of mouth has never traveled so fast so far.
So be kind!