WIIFM

June 13, 2010

WIIFM Broadcasting. No it’s not an American Radio Station broadcasting out of Los Angeles. It’s something all customers ask themselves when you ask something of them. It’s also a motto for the Gen Y’s Generation – these guys are coming of age now, and are potential customers.

WIIFM should be the guiding principle for every customer interaction we do. Let me tell you more.

This morning I received a charming letter from an oil company in Hereford asking if I would fill out some personal details so they could update their database. I bought a tank of household oil from them a couple of months ago.

They wanted email addresses, phone numbers etc. They even put in a pre-paid envelope. Decent of them.

I thought to myself…I have a list of jobs to do this Saturday morning or I can fill in this form, so WIIFM – what’s in it for me?

There was nothing in it for me to fill in the form. I have no loyalty to them as I use an oil aggregator service on the internet called BoilerJuice who source the most competitive oil from the market when I need it.

I thought if only she had given me a good reason to fill in the details such as:

We can keep you informed of our special offers
Let you know when we’re delivering in your area and can fill up your tank for you with no delivery charge.
A prize draw for a bottle of champagne or a hamper or a free 500 litres delivery of oil. Now we’re talking.

If there was something in it for me, then I would have filled in the form.

So remember WIIFM. Everytime you contact your customer, and this includes all those internal ones inside your company, get into their shoes and try and figure out what’s in it for them. Make sure you vocalise this. This works for managing people as well, persuasion, influencing, delegating.

And if they’re a Gen Y, you’ll see the words WIIFM tattooed on the back of their neck. Go on and check the next teenager or early twenties person. You’ll be amazed how much this matters to them.

So where did the letter end up? It was going in the bin, until I saw it was signed personally by Denise, who is probably just following direction from above. Shame you from above, tell Denise about WIIFM. Remember nowadays everyone has sales in their job description, even if it’s not in their title.