In Fred Reichheld’s groundbreaking book The Ultimate Question he talks about good profits and bad profits.
Good profits come from fees customers will gladly pay because they see value in the transaction. A great example is the annual COSTCO membership. I happily pay a $50.00 a year for the privilege of shopping there.
Bad profits are those that are collected at the expense of a customer relationship. They not only turn off customers, they erode employee morale.
I flew from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina to Orlando, Florida today. Here are the bad profits that hit my radar……..just to mention a few.
$15.00 to check a bag.
$6.00 for a glass of wine on the plane.
$3.00 for a bag of pretzels on the plane.
$5.00 to rent a headset to watch the movie on the plane.
$15.00 to SELF park my car at the JW Marriott.
$4.50 for a bottle of water in my room
$15.95 per day for wireless internet, in my room.
But the winner of the bad-profit-fee-of-the-week comes from Wachovia (yes, the failed bank that is now owned by Wells Fargo) who has begun charging a $20.00 employee reference fee!!!
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November 3, 2008 at 6:43 am
Lisa Hochgraf
What’s an employee reference fee?
November 3, 2008 at 12:22 pm
rebecca secor
they’re even charging for non-checked baggage now!
if i’m gonna pay $15 to haul my bag on the plane, the least they could do is cram it in the overhead compartment for me…last flight i almost took out some poor kid’s grandma.
well timed post
i’ll bet we’ll have some fancy new fees to add to this list with the current crisis…wouldn’t it be fun to be the person to come up with these?
$1 to use the drive-thru at mc d’s???
$5 to sit in the comfy booths at your favorite restaurant???
$10 to use the executive restrooms at the office???
I could do this all day 😉
November 4, 2008 at 6:08 am
Denise Wymore
@Lisa, Apparently there are so many ex-Wachovia employees out there applying for jobs that HR is overrun with calls for “reference checks” So they’ve started charging!
@Rebecca – I heard yesterday that a gal paid $7.00 for a crappy pillow on a plane. I drove 9 miles in Orlando yesterday and had to pay $.75 toll charge THREE times. I knew the economy was bad in Florida – but that’s ridiculous.
November 4, 2008 at 7:02 am
Mike Bartoo
Denise – There are ways to avoid the $.75 toll charge three times. It only involves 47 turns, 15 stoplights and 3 u-turns. Oh, and it involves 22 miles to travel the same 9.