Making Someone's Life Better

[put pocket video, running time 2:51]

Yesterday, after my run at the park I was listening to NPR and came across a piece of interesting news. TalkTalk launched what they call PutPocketing - the art of putting money INTO people's pockets without them realizing, using real ex-pickpockets. Which is something that might make a few individuals uneasy, but that definitely makes people talk.

I like the idea of turning a skill used for personal gain into collective benefit. Just like the hacks who decide to work with the good guys to help hold the world wide web together. 

Which is a hard lesson to take for businesses used to thinking in term of profit and bottom line - and the more they tighten their first around that, the more both will be elusive. The truth is that your customers don't care about your strategy. As Monica Harrington noted [hat tip Kris Hoet]:

Consumers don’t care about strategy. Corporate customers do because if they’re investing big dollars over many years in a product, they want to know that it will continue to evolve in ways that are beneficial to the organization. In the corporate market, selling a vision is huge. By contrast, selling a vision to consumers is pointless. The key question they want answered is, "Does it make my life better today?"

Today, consumers have become customers - each with a unique relationship with your product or service. And they don't go for pickpocketing, but might for put-pocketing if what you put in their hands has value to them. Think about it, you probably didn't cut that expense of a company and service that made your life better, did you?

Today at Fast Company expert blog we talk about failure as a necessary ingredient for innovation.

Comments

[Rod Gillies]

Having "login issues" over at FastCompany so just wanted to say here that I really enjoyed the article. I particularly liked; "If it doesn't work the first time, be open to the idea that it might work down the line".

This resonated with me as I recently proposed a piece of online work, which a senior manager expressed doubts about as "we'd done online before" without success. I probed a little further and found out that we'd done a shoddy little website nearly five years ago.

Obviously nothing has changed in the online environment since then... *sigh*

[Elizabeth]

What a novel idea. Putting value into the hands of your customers. Isn't that what businesses should have been doing this whole time? The thing I loved about put-pocketing, was that there was no expectation of getting paid for adding value, it was just adding value to people's lives for the sake of adding value.

[Paul Maurice Martin]

Reverse criminality would be a great trend...

[Coree Silvera]

Right on about companies only concern being the bottom line and how the tight fist strategy is backfiring. The big guys are no different from the little guys in respect to how the laws of abundance works. If they keep focusing only on how to get money out of the consumers pocket and into theirs, they will eventually reap exactly what they sow. A little gift goes a long way in my books and will keep me as a customer.

[Karen Hegmann]

Valeria

I love the clip and like the way you drew an analogy between that and the "profit motive." Call me an idealist, but I do believe that things are changing and people are becoming less tolerant of companies who fail to recognize the best interests of the consumer. It's time for more companies to realize this and "put out." As Dylan once said..."the times, they are a-changin..."

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Rod - the old, we've tried that before could also have been an idea that was never really hatched, but just put on the back burner.

@Elizabeth - things are not going to go back to the same old ways. This recession is truly a reset, not simply a set back.

@Paul - indeed!

@Coree - valid for employees as well - the whole ecosystem. What's sad is that often great companies are built upon a wonderful culture and then they get acquired by other companies that work differently. Kindness, being helpful - both go a long way.

@Karen - I'm definitely voting with my wallet, my attention in how I spend my time, and with whom I spend it. More and more people are doing that than ever before.

[Jamie Favreau]

I loved the idea and it kept you motivated to watch the video to find out what the story was. Great way to pass this on and get positive press from this story.