[dairy 00:06:32] that does delivery out here, and they do this box of vegetables once a week. When you go through that box of vegetables, there's stuff in there that you have no idea even what it is, but they include a sheet with everyone of those boxes that has a bunch of recipes and ideas for how to use a kumquat, and other kind of things that you may not have considered.
To me, I open these things and I look at some of these produce, and I go, "What the heck am I going to do with this? This doesn't have any value to me," until it comes with some information that helps me decide, this is how I could use this in an interesting way for a dinner or a party when we are having guests over or something like that.
John Williams : You are always good at that.
Paula Williams: Thank you. It's not just that sort of thing, it's also business-to-business. You look at situations where a lot of companies don't use the products or services that they have lying around because their staff just doesn't know how to use it properly, or they are not getting the maximum value because they are not using it right. Here's another idea. You can add something that's completely unrelated to your product or service. Like add a box of peaches if you are from Georgia. Any number of things that would work for a business-to-business situation, because a business-t- -business buyer can be influenced if you throw something in that is a personal value to them. If vendor A just gives them the product, and vendor B gives them the product plus some extra pack that they get to keep themselves, that may influence their decision.
John Williams : I know a charter operator as an example that when you drive up to have your car parked, by the time you return that car has been detailed and ready for you to go.
Paula Williams: Exactly. You are paying for the charter flight, but your are also getting your car detailed. I think they also take care of your dry cleaning and all kinds of crazy things that are completely unrelated. That's completely unrelated and it also adds convenience.
John Williams : [inaudible 00:08:42]
Paula Williams: Right. Let's talk about reducing risk. The biggest thing that comes to mind when you talk about reducing risk is a guarantee of some kind, and this tends to make people really nervous.
John Williams : It shouldn't. In our society, it has been pretty much de facto now that if you don't like something and you haven't destroyed it, you are going to take it back.
Paula Williams: Exactly. It has actually gotten to the point, such a biased market that almost everything in the consumer world, you kind of expect it to be able to return. It's like people keep their receipts, and everything else. The culture has gotten so used to being able to return things, that it's almost a practice of doing business. That if you are not satisfied, you can return it.
John Williams : It's even getting worse or better depending on your perspective, and that you don't even need receipts in a lot of places any longer.
Paula Williams: Exactly. There is a lot of companies that pride themselves on taking back ... I think [Erehwon 00:09:44] has a page on their website where they talk about people whose equipment has been destroyed by a [puller bear 00:09:50] or whatever. It just makes a very great story and great marketing that they would return or replace that product. There are actually very few people, especially in the aviation industry, and especially in business-to-business that will abuse the privilege. The numbers are not going to be statistically significant.
John Williams : It's interesting that ... In fact, it's pretty much unheard of that anybody in aviation will actually take anything back, and if they do, it's [reality 00:10:20].
Paula Williams: Exactly. You do want to write a great guarantee because it will improve your sales, generally speaking, a lot more than it would detract from your bottom line. You want to make sure that when you write that guarantee, you want to make sure that you write it so that you are only guaranteeing things that you can control. A lot of our products and services interact with a lot of other things and depend on people using them correctly and so on. You don't want to be a weasel about this, but you do want to make sure that you are explicit about what you are expecting of the customer in order to fairly exercise the guarantee.
John Williams : Have a great week and we'll talk to you next time.
