Do You Convey Value?

I have been saving a torn out letter to the editor since May 26.  The letter struck a cord with me. 

This election year the local school put a levy on the ballot. They wanted the residents to vote for adding a sizable tax amount to our real estate taxes for the purpose of…..well, I don’t know that we ever knew.

I have one child in the school system and she participates in many extra activities, most of which we now pay for as we go.  I received a letter that talked about some of the programs that are available but it didn’t say what would happen if the levy didn’t pass. 

Yes, isn’t it nice that we have all of these programs.  How is that tied to the levy.

The letter to the editor from Kathleen Hooker, a friend of mine and a savvy business woman and articulate communicator had this to say, shortly after the levy didn’t pass:

“While I am disappointed thta Hudson voters defeated the school levy, I am not surprised. As someone who monitors macrotrends for a living, there is a fundamental shift occurring in society; the emergence of the “value-added buyers.” This buyer desires transparency to make better decisions against their own judgement of value, calculated as current value (e.g. property values or test scores) or future value (student job prospects, quality of life). ……The school district should tell us about its investments like corporations publish in their annual reports and we can become better investor partners in the Hudson City schools.”

Beautifully said.  Our customers want to know the “whys.”  All the more reason we need to strive to build a relationship with our customers.  As Kathleen put it – we need to make them better investor partners. 

How many of you have had to raise your prices (or perhaps you hesitate to raise them) and then have to justify the price increase to your customers?  Do you say something like – it is the economy or cost of living or do you actually take them on as partners and let them know how the price increase affects them and why you’ve come to the decision.  Perhaps your suppliers have raised prices.  Perhaps a local vendor you used went out of business and now you have shipping costs you never had before.

Full disclosure or as Kathleen says “transparency.”  If our customers see we are being up front and honest – they will trust us and remember, people buy from those they like and TRUST.

Do you convey your value? Do you invite your customers to be trusted investors in your relationship?