The repair guy comes to fix the washing machine. The machine is quickly fixed in 25 minutes and the charge is $175.
What?! $175 for only 25 minutes of work?! That’s an outrage!
The repair guy comes to fix the washing machine. The machine is eventually fixed after tinkering with it for 4 hours and the charge is $175.
What? $175 for 4 hours of work? That’s not too bad.
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A photographer charges $13,000 to do 24 portraits.
What?! $13,000 for just 24 pictures?! That’s an outrage!
A photographer charges $13,000 for five days of photography, transporting a full studio setup to the location five times, four days of retouching dozens of photos, assistant fees for five days, equipment expenses, other overhead expenses, full copyright transfer and 24 timeless portraits.
What? Only $540 per portrait? That’s not too bad.
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A customer’s willingness to pay is based upon their perception of value (aka “the customer is always right”).
For better or worse, this perception comes more from the customer’s recognition of the effort involved in producing a product or service rather than from the benefit to be gained. It’s difficult for many people to “see” something that’s intangible or, at least, something that’s not immediate.
Customers generally won’t pay for efforts they don’t recognize or understand. Of course, the hard part is getting the customer to recognize the effort involved. An educated customer is always the best customer.
