Marketing genius explains the doorman fallacy

Rory Sutherland explains the real reason expensive hotels have doorman and the real reason may shock you!

The doorman fallacy highlights the hidden costs of short sighted decision making.

Sutherland is a leading marketing expert.

#fiancee #marketing #money

[petrusbuys]

This is very accurate.
I work in a an engineering consultancy. We have an old chap employed as a print room operator that has been doing the same job for over 40 years. The role has probably been defunct for 10+ years due to technological advancements. Still he remains because the company knows that he does a lot more than what his job description states.

He unlocks everything in the morning, makes sure the office is stocked with everything it requires. He knows everyone by name, including their family. He laughs, and jokes. He ensures everyone comes to the staff room during lunch breaks for a game of pool. And at the end of the day, he walks through the whole office, making sure everything is back where it is supposed to be, switches off the lights and locks the doors only to come back the next day to so the same.

On paper, he operates a printer. In reality, he sustains the company’s soul. Invaluable

[fenzelian]

Also a big reason why private equity couldn’t save Sears, but instead destroyed it. Cutting costs made it a miserable place to go.

[samzam]

As an agent at a call centre I hear more and more people especially the elderly that are so grateful to hear a human voice rather than an automated message where you can't engage.

[bobsmith]

This also applies to junior staff.

For every senior staff you need two intermediate staff. And for every intermediate staff you need two junior staff.

If you just look at it as a cost benefit analysis, the junior staff probably don't make enough money to justify their pay. But if you don't have them, then you will have no one to replace the intermediate staff when they leave. And if you don't have any intermediate staff then you will not have anyone to replace the senior staff when they leave.

It makes me so mad when I look at job listings and only see adds for senior staff, and never for junior staff. Senior staff positions should almost never be advertised. They should be filled from within.

[davidcochran]

Maybe better to keep the doorman and pay him what the consultants would have cost.

[jodyschultz]

I worked at a place that manufactured and had a wheelhouse. New exec comes in and says we have 6 months worth of inventory in stock. We need to get that down to a week coz it's costing us money. A few months latter we get a huge order from our major customer but we have no stock so we say delivery will be 6 months. The customer went with a competitor and never ordered from us again. That customer was responsible for 50% of our orders.

[Darkvictorious]

Indeed! Without the doorman the place looses its class. It feels more like going to the supermarket rather than staying in a luxurious hotel.

[velvetleaves]

I worked Concierge in a 23 story corporate building for 3 years. I knew every part of that building, every tenant and was the go to person for everything in that building and held a security licence to cover that role. This is so true.

[kaunas]

When I moved into a new apartment I scoffed at the part time doorman. Soon, I realized that he cleans the building, collect mail when folks are away, can come in when there is an emergency, can attend to repairs, collects the trash, etc.

[stillhuntre]

I was a cashier for years. Cashiers ring through your purchase, but they also make you aware that what you bought requires other pieces, or doesn't come with batteries, they address problems before they become a complaint, and help decipher strange requests.They make eye contact with everyone entering, deterring theft. Self checkouts really underestimate how much a well trained cashier does.

[rrwholloway]

Not everything that has value can be measured.
Too many businesses forget that there are many important things people do that cannot be captured in a spreadsheet.

[robdom]

Use the Hungarian solution: Keep using the doorman! You wouldn't believe how good it feels for a customer to be greeted at the door to public building. We have doormen in hotels, government offices, even in big plazas. The closest thing you might understand their work to be as the Information Kiosk person. They give you instructions where to go, but a good doorman also goes with you as long as you're uncertain. They show you which button to press on a ticket terminal, or which receptionist you should queue in front of. It's not that you couldn't figure it out, but it does save you time and relieve the tension of going into an unfamiliar place for the first time. The psychology is amazing. You're treated like a human being. Really grateful for these people.

[bendykat]

As an IT person, I routinely find that part of my job is to step into those conversations and say “what happens when there’s a power outage? Or a network outage? Or the facial recognition has a bug?”

[forgottenfamily]

There was a story years ago about this company that had a problem: when their production line ran out, they ended up with empty boxes being shipped. So they built a system to detect it and shut the entire thing down when that happened and ring this loud alarm.

The guy who was supposed to do something when this happened got really annoyed at this alarm so just put a fan at the end of the conveyor belt to blow the empty boxes off the line.

[JR-bjuf]

I worked for a company for a number of years and we had a long term employee who left for the weekend, got into a car crash and never returned. The the big boss she was just an admin that answered phones. In reality she was quality control making sure that there was enough fabric to fill orders, checking each job before it was shipped and in general making sure the details were correct. Management never knew the extent of what she did and the product line suffered as a result. She had never told anyone that she was taking these steps. She just felt obligated to do a good job.

[samday]

People often underestimate to value of routine staff. For example, in my old office the receptionist knew everyone. If you needed to find someone for a particular job but didn’t know who could do it, you would ask her who to speak to. That kind of knowledge is invaluable.

[robertdore]

This chap is absolutley spot on. Alan Sugar was once quoted as say that if he needed a consultant; he'd fire himself.

[joshuaGmartin]

Nailed it. “Numbers don’t lie” is true only if you have perfect knowledge of the surrounding context

[body_by_depuy]

I used to be the CEO of a hospital and I will wholeheartedly say that 99% of consultants are utterly useless. You're going to pay a lot of money to be told shit that you should already be aware of if you're talking to your people. Their recommendations almost always center around getting rid of people for some type of technology that ends up not working nearly as well as the humans who used to do the function. Or, they have these ineffective, completely stupid HR ideas that only serve to frustrate the ever loving shit out of your staff. Save your money. Talk to your people...daily. Get to know them. Go do their work with them if you can; sit in their back pocket and watch if you can't. (You have to build trust with them first so they don't think that you're just trying to sharpshoot them.) Ask this question, "what's one thing I could do, today, that would make your job easier?" and then follow up on doing those things which are possible. It's not hard, you just have to actually give a shit about your people.

[aycoded]

It’s a lack of respect or appreciation