Vikas Bansal, IIT Madras

Customer Value Creation: Give up the control and flourish!!!

Customer Value can be created through umpteen ways. I will be putting my perspective on how to create customer value by “Giving up the control”. Bizarre it may sound but I have a small story which goes like this.

Visiting big retail chain and watching thousands of products displayed elegantly has always been an exhilarating experience for me. One hundred types of Soups, great variety of organic food, stimulating collection of sausages has always given the kick to gourmet like me. I tried to explore the reason, why retail chains emphasize so much on display of products. Marketing aficionados told me that the reason is obvious, not even worth discussing. More product display means better exposure, which further coerce customers to buy products, which otherwise they would not have bought. I took the logic and convinced myself that the use of million square feet of floor space to display products is to stimulate latent customer needs and in process fuel sales!!! Phew…

But one day something happened which impelled me to question this fundamental (stimulate latent needs), which was nothing less than a gospel for me, till now. I was in the process of buying laptop from Dell. When I came to making a payment, the nice lady form Dell put on IVR system and I could make the payment in seconds without revealing the details of my credit card to anyone (though I wouldn’t have minded it giving to the lady ;)). I felt liberated, literally. I felt like a free bird, which can fly in any direction, anywhere. This event led to genesis of following hypothesis.

Displaying items alone can’t make customer buy anything. But the display of products in retails is meant to give control in the hands of customers. It makes them feel liberated. (S)He thinks that (s)he has been emancipated. This emancipation is manifested in his/her purchase behavior. She (generally!!!) ends up buying bizarre products, which otherwise he would not have bought.


Given an option to choose between two restaurants, one would tend to choose the restaurant with more choices, even though he may always order the same things. This happens because more options mean more control. More control aggravates his latent needs. Vending machines, Millions of tariff plans by telecom service providers; elaborated menu all put the control in the hand of customer and lets him decide their fate.

In short if you want to create a unique value of the customer, be ready to give up the control. Give it in the hands of your customers. They value it and will surely pay you back, generously.
What do you people think??? Does it make any sense or it’s just a figment of my imagination? Comments are invited.