Occasionally, I crave Long John Silvers fish. I've been a customer since the early Seventies, and that's almost 40 years. Lately, I cringe when I approach the drive-through because I know they're going to upsell me to the point of anger. Irritating your customers is never a good idea, but they're turning it into an art form.
The person on the intercom asked if I wanted to try their daily special. I said no, I just wanted two pieces of fish and a small root beer. "That's all," I added.
Then came the first upsell -- "Do you want the combo for (price)?"
"No thanks," I replied, rolling my eyes.
"Would you like to add (another product) for (price)?" he continued.
"No thanks, just two pieces of fish and a small root beer," I said through gritted teeth.
"Would you like to add a corn on the cob for 79 cents?" he asked.
"No." Now I was getting steamed.
"Is that all?" he asked, even though I had made it clear that this was all.
"THAT'S ALL!"
When I got around to the window, I told him that the upsells were becoming very annoying.
"Yeah, I know," he laughed. "But that's what they want me to say."
This is another example of how Corporate doesn't understand the customer.
McDonald's perfected the upsell. Many years ago, just by adding one question - "Do you want fries with that?" -- they saw a jump in profits. The practice caught on.
If you sell items online, when someone buys an item, you can have a popup window appear, thanking them for the purchase, and offering another item at a special discount. Some online merchants have seen up to 60% of customers say yes to the additional item -- an incredibly inexpensive way to see profits jump. It's an effective upsell.
Amazon.com does this, too. If you're looking at a book, for example, amazon will show you a special discount if you add a closely related book to the purchase. It works. It's a great example of an effective upsell.
Here are a couple of tips on using the upsell effectively:
1. The item you're upselling must make sense. It must be related to the original item being purchased.
2. The upsell should have a discount attached to it. The customer should get a price break if they say yes. An upsell is far less annoying if the customer perceives value to it, even if they say no.
3. The upsell must be limited to one offer. Badgering a customer with more upselling after they say no is a good way to lose customer.
The least effective upsell that I've seen is at Walgreens. When you go to the cashier at Walgreens, sometime in the last year or so I noticed that they started asking, "Would you like a candy bar?" They pointed to a basket full of Snickers or another candy bar next to the cash register.
Now, don't you think it's dumb for a drug store to offer candy to its customers? This means someone who is purchasing a prescription for diabetes is going to be accosted with an offer for a candy bar. Obese people will be offered a candy bar. This is DUMB marketing. And it's blind. It doesn't differentiate between customers and what they want. It makes no sense.
Walgreens doesn't always offer candy. The other day I was buying something and the cashier said, "Would you like to buy some batteries?" She pointed to a basket of AA batteries on the counter. I simply laughed and said, "No thanks."
This is Walgreens' way of asking, "Do you want fries with that?" It's as if very little thought was given to the customer, although I have to admit that batteries make more sense than candy bars. One day, I said to the cashier, "It's a shame they make you say that." The cashier complained that she didn't like it, either. "Corporate idiots," I said, and she agreed. Not only does this practice irritate the customer, it humiliates the employees, and that's bad corporate policy, too.
Don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg. An upsell can boost your profits. But not if you anger your customers, as Long John Silvers is doing. Or, if you're at Walgreens and your upsell doesn't make sense.