Value skew: What discernible difference ultimately turned you into a buyer or x-buyer?

[YanC]

I subscribed to Internxt yesterday, a cloud storage service. I've been tired of copying and pasting files between my desktop and laptop (and sometimes making mistakes and losing time wondering which versions were up to date and which were not). I didn't want to use Dropbox, which solved this problem a long time ago, or Google Drive as I don't trust these guys privacy wise. What's the skew with Internxt ? Zero-knowledge encryption. Plus, incidentally, I prefer to support a startup moving the needle rather than a behemoth whose principles I dislike.

Here's another one. I'm almost done with a deep rehab on a multi unit building and considering building my own house soon. I know very well which contractors I'll keep working with and which I will not, and the skew is very obvious as this is what you hear all the time in this business: they answer the phone, you don't need to call them every other day for 2 weeks to get them to show up, they do the job at least correctly and in time. Simple.

 

[Deleted70138]

Negative skew:
Went into a supermarket to buy something worth eating, but literally every product has a sugar or palm oil inside. It's unbelievable how shitty food there is. Even roasted nuts had some kind of oil inside. Why would you add oil in nuts?! just roast them!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Interesting dynamics why I just switched barbers.

Since I moved to Utah, I've been using a local, independently owned shop. Been there probably a dozen times. They do a decent job, really wasn't looking for another barber.

But I just switched today and likely will never be back.

#1) Availability: The last 6 times I've tried to book, the barbers I like to cut my hair are never available, unless you want your haircut next week. And I had 4 to choose from. As such, my hair is always unruly and unkempt, more so the nicely cut. I like to go every 3 weeks. Based on their availability, I've been pushing 5-6 weeks.

#2) Waxing: They also didn't offer waxing services, namely ear and nose hair removal.

#3) Better flexibility: The new barbershop I used has several chains around the area, they offer a monthly, fixed unlimited membership (I can go once per week) and they offer nose/ear/eyebrow waxing. In other words, I pay basically a slightly higher price but I get to go several times per month AND I get the waxing done when needed.

#4) Better consistency: I can tell the new barber has standards and systems in place. You get the hot towel, the neck and scalp massage regardless of who is doing your hair. The other place was like a crap shoot, sometimes they did certain things, sometimes not.

Value skew in action!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Bump, pulled out of the Random Chat thread.

 

[Edgar King]

I think that even if there are 100 reasons to buy a product, a single reason not to buy that hits the wrong nerve could be the deciding factor.

I've had occasions sharing the same experience.

To add to that, I think every product we buy solves a problem, but there's one special benefit/skew we are looking for in the product that makes all the difference (like our buying decision comes down to 80% the product hitting this special benefit/skew and 20% for other benefits/skew). And it's those companies that solely target this skew to be the best at that their ideal customers fall in love with.

For example, let's say you want leads for your business. There's product A, B, and C offering that which all cost the same. They all solve this problem.

But, you specify you want hot leads for your business. If only product A offered that, I'd say that's the one you'd go with. But if product B offered even more of that skew, you'd go with that simply because it had the largest scale X magnitude/cost of tangible attributes causing this "hot" skew that you really wanted.

 

[BizyDad]

Did you buy/decide which one? And why?

I've decided on a RAV4. Haven't bought one yet. Not sure on the trim level. I think the SE will give me the best value, so probably go with that. I plan on beating it up a bit, so not sure I want to splurge on a nicer interior while my kids are still little. Going this Friday, it'll be a birthday present to myself.

I considered the Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Lexus comparables. I even considered the Ford Lightning and MachE, but don't want to pull the trigger on all electric. They all check a lot of what I'm looking for in a car. Ultimately, of the hybrid SUVs I like the look of the RAV4 the most. And next year they're doing a refresh of the look, which I like less. So now's the time to buy.

At least from the copious YouTube videos I've watched, it seems to do the best of that bunch on trails, though none are to be confused with a Wrangler. Gets the best gas mileage too.

And my neighbor who runs a repair shop in his driveway owns one, so I know I have a cheap place to fix it up if I do anything stupid...

 

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[Kak]

MileIQ…

They used to be a part of Microsoft’s 365 package, and now they are spun off on their own.

I bought MS365 specifically for this, as I already had a lifetime license for the office programs I needed.

Now I use OneDrive extensively, (because why not use it if you have to buy it), and I have to buy a subscription to MileIQ to keep that going as well.

ClubCorp…

I am a member of a ClubCorp country club that is associated with my neighborhood. They force you to join when you move here.

So unlike many of the ClubCorp clubs across the country, this one is neglected. They don’t have to earn your business, so they don’t bother trying. The pool, the tennis courts, the driving range, they’re all better than a public arrangement, but they’re certainly not “up to par.”

The saving grace of this thing was that I had what was called a Young Executive Plan so I could play all the ClubCorp clubs. I had reciprocity everywhere. So I had a lot of places to play golf in the area. Of course, they did away with that and started to charge me more.

 

[socaldude]

F*ck MailCheat(Chimp). And F*ck Intuit, another shitty public company that I refuse to do business with

And you know those schmucks snuck it their terms of service. Kind of how like PayPal updates their TOS every week. I use Klaviyo.

 

[Andy Black]

Wow, amazing that most of the replies (thus far) are about NEGATIVE skew.

Ha. It’s like a positive skew nowadays is to not be a-holes.

I’ve stayed signed up to loads of SaaS products simply because they actually do the one thing I want them to do. Being usable is enough for me to recommend them to other people.

 

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[Jadus]

Do not speak in definitive terms about people, politics or ideas. The idea may be wrong to you, but it exists because it is right to someone else. This is a fast way to lose your audience.

I'm not sure if you're agreeing with me or criticizing me. I'll express my opinions here and in other media as an individual. I'm not trying to build an audience. But I would never bring up politics in any communication to my customers, which is what that company (and many others) did.

 

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[Kevin88660]

I think it would be great to have a discussion on value skew as it works in the real world. Mainly, post your experience with a product or service you recently bought, and the core buying reason WHY you bought it.

Or, post negative skew items, a core reason WHY you STOPPED buying from a particular company.

I'll copy an example of "negative skew" from @biophase who posted this recently in the Random Chat thread.

This will give us a great digest of value attributes that compel purchases in business, or compel x-buyers. The more discernible skew you present in your offer, the more sales you will attract. The less negative skew in your offer, the fewer buyers you will lose.

Simple examples of skew:

• They answered my email in 1 hour!
• They had this great feature that no one else had!
• They were $12 cheaper per month
• They had an ingredient I was looking for
• Just liked the packaging
• They had a great cause that spoke to my identity

Note: Your skew could also be an experience relating to customer loyalty: Wow, Widget Company did X for me and that really makes me loyal to them!

Simple examples of negative skew:

• Too many upsells in the cart process!
• Confusing checkout process
• Shipping prices were insane
• Contained an ingredient I don't want (Aspartame, Red-40)
• The company turned into a political activist or became "woke" or "anti-woke"
• Failed to answer my support question timely

Ill start.

I recently joined a fitness program and after I subscribed, the company offered me a "free fitness accessory". Naturally, I expected the item to be FREE, but have a $12 shipping cost -- so it still was a profit center. To my surprise, the item WAS free, and so was shipping! This totally increased my loyalty to this company.

They give what I want at the time.

It is largely binary (so long not too expensive). It either fulfills the need or not.

When I go cafe to have coffee, meal or do work I need plenty charging portals for my laptop. I don’t care if your food is horrible. Indeed the one I chose does have pretty bad food.

In term of retail shopping I need good advisory. I am rather disappointed in one the major electronic retail shop staffs’s inadequate expertise leading me to buy power banks that could not charge my laptop, even having me showing them the specs at back of the laptop.

I don’t really care if I pay 30 or 50 dollar more compared to buying online. I need assurance that the specification fits my device. I cannot afford to go to a war and having the rifle couldn’t load my rounds as they don’t fit.

So when I visit a retail mall I need advisory that could help me buy the right thing in a single trip.

Another rule is I hate trickery and playing mind games. Business that do that turn me off. I find that my grab taxi app (a uber variant) keep doing that to me, marking the fixed fare extremely high, at the same time delaying my time in getting a variable fare taxi service (count by meter), hoping that I am price insensitive and time sensitive.

The problem is when you feel that someone tries to rip you off your defence mechanism jumps right to the roof (at least for me). It triggers the fight instinct to just keep pressing call for variable fare taxi and wait (take out my laptop to do my stuff) or try to walk to the taxi stand. I feel that I am in a battle that I don’t want to lose. I rather donate 20 dollar to charity than to lose one dollar to a “scammer”.

 

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[Antifragile]

Where is this?

Vancouver, Canada.

 

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[S.Y.]

I used Evernote back in the day and realized a little too late that they had a proprietary file structure. I couldn't do anything with the notes outside of Evernote. Obsidian sounds better but I found that going back to the basics was best for me. Files in folders. Simple as that.

Obsidian is the basics. I can open my file with any standard text file app. That's one of the main reasons why I selected it. The other is the powerful tools the community brings. I am on a journey to expand what the author David Epstein calls my range, the skills that will make me fit into the polymath/generalist category. With Obsidian, I can connect thoughts, build convenient maps of contents, and when I have time, random select notes to encourage serendipity.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Negative Skew: Payroll, switched from ADP to Gusto.

Nice, I'm thinking about switching to Gusto from Quickbooks Payroll ... same type of BS, any type of call to the company gets no where, and costs me hours of time and frustration.

Also, I dropped Quickbooks Accounting in favor of Zip--Books which is 10X better.

Anything Intuit buys turns to dogshit, MailCheat(Chimp) their latest victim.

 

[Heath_FLF]

This is an interesting one...
Yesterday I went into a car accessories and parts store to buy some bug remover spray for my car (we just got back from holiday), I went over to the shelves and after a little reviewing, I went with the product brand I'm most familiar with and have used for years. It's one of the more expensive brands but I justify this because other washing sprays have worked really well from that brand so I stick with what I know works.
When I get tone counter, the young man serving says that if I'm interested and willing to vier away from that brand, their is another - much cheaper product - that he's just used on his car that worked exceptionally well, and I should really consider giving that a try and I would save myself x amount of dollars (in this case it was 60 percent cheaper than what I'd picked).
I purchased the cheaper item based on his attitude, his own successful use story and perceived genuineness. And, it worked perfectly.
Whilst the company lost some money yesterday, I will return there and buy more products, and I believe I will honestly spend more there in the long run as a result of his honesty.

To me, this showed me the value of a longer term positive skew, rather than a quick win skew.
Curious to know other people's thoughts on this man's "down selling" me.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

To me, this showed me the value of a longer term positive skew, rather than a quick win skew.
Curious to know other people's thoughts on this man's "down selling" me.

Absolutely, he put YOU first over his company's profitability. The short-term effect is less profit... the long term effect (thru honesty) is MORE profit.

 

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[seraphine]

One example of a positive value skew is the jewelry company Mene. One day my dad and I were discussing how much we disliked 14k and 18k gold, which is what you’ll mainly find in jewelry stores, even super expensive, high-end ones. I looked up “24k gold jewelry” online and found Mene, which at the time was the only store I could find selling 24k gold.

The prices are reasonable, many of the designs are really timeless and versatile, and I’ve worn my chain and pendant everyday for over a year (even sometimes in the shower and while sleeping), and it looks as good as new. It’s really interesting to see the prices on the website go up and down with the price of gold, and another interesting thing is that I think one of the founders is Picasso’s granddaughter.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

In fact, I just did this and had great joy dropping Intuit like a hot steaming pile of manure.

Wow, Intuit being deceitful, call me not shocked.

TurboTax owner Intuit to pay $141 million to customers 'unfairly charged'

The tax filing software provider will pay restitution to 4.4 million customers who used TurboTax's Free Edition for tax years 2016 through 2018.

www.cnbc.com

I wanted to call Amazon support to discuss this situation

Yikes, not a good feeling. Like knowing you have to call the IRS, or Facebook support.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Just switched over from quickbooks to zipbooks. Value skew: Cleaner UI and easier to use, Love their basic income report layout

Yes thus far I am very impressed with ZipBooks, looks like I will become a long-term customer. Not being "quickbooks" or having anything to do with Intuit is a value-skew in itself.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Value skew: I just purchased a software product due to the level of documentation that was provided by the company. It was extensive.

Negative skew: The company I passed on hasn't updated their product in over a year, which in the field I was looking at, might as well be 4 years.

 

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[Manasseh Pawlos]

Positive value skew: Local no-bullshit honey, sold in a shack on rural land.

They had great reviews on Google. Plenty of repeat customers praising the quality.

When I went there, I was greeted by an old couple. They had plaques and awards from a yearly honey contest. Spoke passionately about their product. Explained exactly why their honey was worth the price.

No added sugar. No sugars snuck into the bees' diet. No pesticides, herbicides, all the -cides. Tests and graphs comparing the properties of their honey to the typical store-bought honey.

They explained exactly why their honey was superior, had the data to back it up, and answered my own questions sufficiently. No arbitrary certifications or buzzwords. No branding to convince me to buy.

They made it clear they took no shortcuts with their product. Whatever price tag they chose to attach to their honey, it was worth it. So I paid.

 

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[Andy Black]

Just spent an hour on a chat line with those assholes over at MailCheat(Chimp)/Intuit ... naturally, I wasted one hour with some idiot who had no authority to do anything. So right now my account is being held hostage, and useless, unless I "UPGRADE NOW!" Legal extortion.

Intuit has officially joined the ranks of dogshit companies like Facebook.

Can you export your email list and import into some other platform MJ?

 

[Private Witt]

I wanted to give a young guy about my age a shot as a new contractor to repair the siding on my garage - but he showed up to my house stoned out of his mind and smelling like weed. Negative skew! Sorry bro!

I went with the older, slower, more expensive guy.

I agree with your move going with the non stoned guy. Is funny in my niche of cannabis events if you show up not smelling like weed or stoned and pass when someone offers a joint you look suspicious and passed off as a corporate strip miner.

 

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[Private Witt]

My SUV is a Hyundai Tucson which has been amazing. 140k miles and have only had to do the basics like tires, brakes, and a few headlight bulbs. I did need a completely new engine that they replaced for free as was just inside the 100k warranty (blew at 96, was sweating that decision, but they came through). They also gave me a two month dealer loaner while was waiting for the new engine.

 

[Deleted70138]

Bought this recorder, because vloggers I knew said it does it's job great. Company could not F*ck up their marketing bad enough for me not to buy it.


On the other hand, switched from Premiere pro to Davinci Studio, just because it does not crash every second day & no need to be on intravenous payments for the rest of my life.

 

[Jadus]

On the flip side Evernote.... sigh. I have plenty of notes, and accessing them from everywhere is important to me. I gave Evernote premium a try when it was still in its infancy. And it was great. Access to my notes on all the devices I want, simple app that just works, amazing web clipper... I was hooked. As time passed, they gradually went from being innovators to having a clunky software and an infuriating pricing structure. I found Obsidian which is not only use local notes (no proprietary file, just a simple markdown - so better privacy), is flexible and powerful.

I used Evernote back in the day and realized a little too late that they had a proprietary file structure. I couldn't do anything with the notes outside of Evernote. Obsidian sounds better but I found that going back to the basics was best for me. Files in folders. Simple as that.

 

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[Guest-5ty5s4]

Nice, I'm thinking about switching to Gusto from Quickbooks Payroll ... same type of BS, any type of call to the company gets no where, and costs me hours of time and frustration.

Also, I dropped Quickbooks Accounting in favor of Zip--Books which is 10X better.

Anything Intuit buys turns to dogshit, MailCheat(Chimp) their latest victim.

Just signed up for ZipBooks.

Value Skew: They have a free option.

 

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[SPM_ENT]

Nice, I'm thinking about switching to Gusto from Quickbooks Payroll ... same type of BS, any type of call to the company gets no where, and costs me hours of time and frustration.

Also, I dropped Quickbooks Accounting in favor of Zip--Books which is 10X better.

Anything Intuit buys turns to dogshit, MailCheat(Chimp) their latest victim.

My limited experience with Gusto seems positive but still too early to give 100% recommendations on.

Ya, QBO just go 4x more expensive because I needed more in my chart of accounts . I would like to replace it but for now, it's not worth my time to find and learn another platform. Focusing on more clients which will pay for the BS extras from intuit.

 

[Jpeveryday]

On the negative side, during the rioting that took place in 2020, I was using an app on my eCommerce store called Privy. It provided a pop-up to capture email addresses for my list. The owner sent out a nauseating letter, basically apologizing for his whiteness and saying how they would be donating to BLM and other black organizations.

I wrote back and told him how I considered BLM to be a racist, marxist and terrorist organization. I didn't want the money I was paying for the app to be going there. (By the way, the founders of BLM just bought a multi-million dollar mansion in California for themselves).

I soon realized that Klavio, which I was already using, had it's own pop-up form. So, I dropped Privy and started using it instead. Getting into politics is definitely a negative skew for a company. You're going to lose half your audience, whichever way you go.

Am black . Totally agree I sent out 100 of the types of emails to woke companies.

 

[door123]

Nice, I'm thinking about switching to Gusto from Quickbooks Payroll ... same type of BS, any type of call to the company gets no where, and costs me hours of time and frustration.

Also, I dropped Quickbooks Accounting in favor of Zip--Books which is 10X better.

Anything Intuit buys turns to dogshit, MailCheat(Chimp) their latest victim.

Just switched over from quickbooks to zipbooks. Value skew: Cleaner UI and easier to use, Love their basic income report layout