Do you know the

magic triangle?

What does this mean?

The project goal is within the magic triangle. Thus there is an interaction between the cost, time and quality corner. If you influence one of them, it has an effect on the other two. And this is exactly the crux of the matter. When customers approach companies, they usually have the requirement that their project offers the highest quality, with all requirements at the best price. So this wish ends up with the service provider, who gets under enormous pressure. Usually a customer has a fixed budget, but the requirements and expectations of the customer would exceed this budget.

Even if the customer is aware of this, it is still not easy to convey to him that his wishes are exorbitant. It is often the case that quality is sacrificed in favour of price and the cheaper provider is chosen. But is cheaper always better? Is it not perhaps easier to rethink?

You will say now of course but what does this have to do with ice cream?

Very simple. When I thought about this problem, I thought about my childhood. Every day during the summer “Francesco” came with his ice cream van. My absolute favorite ice cream (even today) was spaghetti ice cream (6 scoops of vanilla ice cream pressed through a spaghetti press on cream and as topping strawberry sauce).

This ice cream cost around 4 Deutsche Mark (which was a great price) at the time. I remember one day when “Francesco” came back and I ran to my mother, who accompanied me to the ice cream truck. She said “My son, you’ll get 3 DM and you can choose something”.

I could not believe it and made a huge fuss as it often is as a child. I said to my mother that I really wanted a spaghetti ice cream. So my mother gave me a choice “Phil we can go home where I still have frozen spaghetti ice cream from the discounter or you can get 3 Deutsche Mark and get something from the ice cream man”.

By the way, I did not like the ice cream from the discount store. Francesco, who was an employee himself, overheard the discussion. He said: “Young man, normally there are 6 scoops of vanilla ice cream in the spaghetti ice cream, I’ll make you a spaghetti ice cream with 4 scoops and extra sauce for 3 Deutsche Mark”. 3 Deutsche Mark paid, no stomach ache from the discounter ice cream and a happy Phil with a smaller but still high quality spaghetti ice cream.

What do we learn from this?

1. Franscesco has seen that there is a possibility that little Phil might take the discount ice cream and thus lose income. He has reacted flexibly and made little Phil an offer, allowing him to benefit from the quality he is used to. A service provider in general should make this as palatable as possible to the customer.
2. Little Phil changed his mind and saw that less is more. He got his wish and kept the high quality.

Basically it doesn’t matter if it is an internet presence, a webshop or just ice cream. One should never lose sight of the fact: Quality is not negotiable.

The performance of a service provider is measured by its quality and ability to deliver. If a service provider delivers poor performance, it will be remembered. Even if previous or future projects remain flawless, there will always be a shadow on the relationship. This effect is called negativity bias. It is evolutionary based on the fact that humans perceive negative events more strongly or memorize them more strongly in order to protect themselves from repetition in the future (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3652533/ ).

What does this mean for business? Since a service provider should have the well-being of the customer in the foreground, it is also up to the customer to give him the best possible advice. This is not about squeezing the customer to the last detail, but about offering him the highest possible quality to achieve long-term customer loyalty.

This means that we should not regard the service we provide as THE ONE service for the customer, but as ONE OF MANY. Which means that we are obliged to perform well in order not to be embarrassed by a bad performance and to compensate for it with many very good performances. Keeping the enthusiasm from the beginning on a healthy level for both parties simplifies the contact with the customer and makes more fun.

Easier said than done? Yes, I agree with you! Due to the hard competition on the market it is difficult to convince the customer of such things.

Of course, you will now ask yourself: How can I convince the customer of my attitude and get him on my side?

Let’s go back to the story. What happened?

1. Me as the customer wanted a spaghetti ice cream but had only 3 Deutsche Mark
2. Franscesco as the service provider offers the spaghetti ice cream for 4 Deutsche Mark
3. My mother as the competitor offers me a spaghetti ice cream from the discounter. Let’s say 2 Deutsche Mark
4. Franscesco as a service provider offers me less with higher quality for my budget, but fulfils my wish and gives me an extra on top
5. Me as the customer is happy and comes back the next time.

But…

What would have happened if I had told Franscesco I wanted the big ice cream for 3 Deutsche Mark?

He most likely would have said no!

What would have happened if I had taken the cheaper option?

I wouldn’t have got the same quality, I wouldn’t have liked it and I would probably have had stomach ache.

All in all I would have been dissatisfied.

My mother as a customer at the discounter would not have bought this ice cream anymore.

You see it’s all about ice cream.