I was watching TV the other (sleepless) night. Caught a Tempur-Pedic commercial. Seems the Tempur-Pedic is a spectacular bed for whatever reason, so spectacular that the company gives you a 90-Day trial period. Not 90-days of simply looking at your new bed, but 90-days of actually sleeping on it. If you don't love it, you give it back. No questions asked.
Now, that's a guarantee.
I'm not in the market for an expensive bed these days (I'm actually sleeping on a blow-up right now - don't ask), but I tell ya - I'm impressed. I'm sure Tempur-Pedic's 90-Day guarantee is mostly gimmick, and I have no idea if they stand behind it, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. And proclaim that we could use more gimmicks like this in our world.
What if everyone guaranteed their product or service this way? Wouldn't that be SWEEEEET? If your doctor doesn't cure you, he returns your money. If your publicist doesn't increase your exposure, he doesn't see a payday. If that pay-per-click campaign you shelled out $500/month for doesn't produce results, you get a refund.
Sure, there are innumerable flaws in this model, but isn't the overall philosophy wonderful? Put the pressure on the provider to 1) be worth his or her fee, and 2) analyze the situation before accepting payment to determine if your money will be well-spent, and I imagine we would see an exponential improvement in the quality of products and services delivered to the marketplace. I can't tell you how many times I've paid for a service and been told after a disappointing experience - "Well, we never guaranteed results!"
Why not? Why did you TAKE my money if you didn't think it was a good investment for me? (Okay, that's a silly question, but I still think it's a fair one).
While I believe that the real estate industry's compensation model is seriously flawed, I do like the message we send that if we don't perform, we don't get paid. Unfortunately, all too often we DON'T perform, even under this model, but that's a topic for a dozen different blogs. Philosophically, though, I like it.
That said, and yeah, this will sound really inconsistent, but I could also get behind the model of real estate agents as salaried professionals or pay-per-project consultants. Which I'll elaborate on next time!
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