Subscribe to the RSS feed?Oh heck yes. Well played sir/ma'am, well played.
I’ve been known to play devil’s advocate from time to time, and this post it no different. Let me say up front that I largley agree with Seth Godin on the Rock, Paper, Scissors promotion and Andrew Barbaccia makes a good point too, but there’s a big part of human nature that neither of these guys are factoring in.
People abuse good things. A lot.
I recently signed up for MySpace, and within the first 4 days I had 10 friend requests from “people” wanting me to check out their webcam. Or notes from “concerned friends” who wanted to show me the best place to get Viagra.
I use (and love) StumbleUpon to find new marketing sites, but after running into the hundredth SEO service or other pyramid scheme, it starts to drag the whole thing down a little.
My point is that while I see nothing wrong with empowering the front-line worker, I think that it has a lot of potential to be abused. The goal is to add some humanity and fun to otherwise mundane tasks, but what about the cashier who just gives everyone the discount because they’re too lazy, or don’t like playing a game? What about the person in AR that gives a prize to a certain company every time because they’re trying to go work there?
How do you fix those problems, which seem rooted in human nature?
social networks.
trust breeds trust.
Matt, you make a very good point about the potential for abuse in a promotion like Rock,Paper,Sissors. While I am sure the potential is there for abuse, we try to focus on the positive. In our experience the vast majority of customers and employees want to do the right thing. The results….RPS was a huge success on many levels. The staff had the opportunity / excuse to interact with our customers. All involved loved it! By my unscientific analysis the customers won approx. 60% of the games. Business was brisk on RPS day, and there appears to be a residual…hopefully people are still talking about it. Keep an eye out for Pop Tart Day!
Peter,
I agree, and sometimes trust is the hardest thing to get and keep.
Bob,
Let me be the first to say that I’m really happy that RPS worked out for you. I think that your company is an innovator and you do a great job breathing life into otherwise routine interactions. If I worked for you, I’d love any excuse to operate outside the norm. I never intended to be a detractor, just to bring up an issue that all of us face. Best of luck with everything
last time I checked, the devil didn’t need an advocate.
I know, I know, but you can’t beat his hourly rate…