When it rains the price of umbrellas goes…

IKEAComplete this sentence: “When it rains, the price of umbrellas goes __.”

If you guessed up you’d be right in most places. But at IKEA stores, you’d be wrong.

Here’s how they price their umbrellas:

IKEA umbrellas
Sunny Day: $ 10
Rainy Day: $ 3

Yes, on rainy days, umbrellas are cheaper :o) What a nice way to make customers happy.

This is no coincidence – happiness matters at IKEA. Their founder, Ingvar Kamprad, once said this:

Work should always be fun for all colleagues. We all only have one life. A third of life is work. Without desire and fun, work becomes hell.

To me, this attitude only makes sense. Making your employees happy makes the business more profitable and making your customers happy keeps them coming back.

It ain’t rocket surgery, and fortunately more and more companies are figuring this out and committing themselves to happiness at work.

Your take

What about your workplace? Does happiness matter where you work? Does anyone care whether the people and customers are happy? Please write a comment, I’d love to know.

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Comments

13 responses to “When it rains the price of umbrellas goes…”

  1. Shu Yen Avatar

    That’s how Giordano in Singapore used to sell their umbrellas too.
    It definitely boost sales as people think it is a better deal.
    Plus, it is good for the company’s image.

  2. Anja Avatar

    Rocket “surgery”? :)

  3. Ask M Avatar

    Agreed – happy customers make repeat customers.

    My take on a recent customer service programme http://askm-videos.blogspot.com/2009/08/polite-customers-lead-to-good-service.html

    M

  4. Dena Avatar

    Wow, what a wonderful article. I am sharing this everywhere that I can. If only everyone would take this attitude, what a beautiful place the world will be. Let’s fuel the happiness revolution – one smile at a time!

    : ]

  5. Linda Kaplan Thaler Avatar

    Absolutely! We’ve found time and time again that keeping employees happy not only brings about an enhanced office environment, it leads to wonderful creative work. For example, before we begin a meeting, we always start with a bit of small talk. Allowing our coworkers to “shoot the breeze” together loosens everyone up and gets those creative juices flowing. In fact, it’s that very ability for us to joke around with one another that brought about our agency’s creation of the AFLAC duck. So, 100% yes: happy employees matter. After all, happy employees often result in happy customers.

  6. Gareth Coxon - Dot Design Avatar

    I like Ikea’s policy with this, a nice touch and one I’m sure many companies wouldn’t have even thought of!

  7. Ed Avatar

    This is a very nice gesture on the part of IKEA, and I guess as one of the comments said, happy customers will be repeat customers – and I guess also NOISY customers, this is what you would tell your friends about.

    I guess this kinda explains some of the IKEA-fanatasicm!

  8. karim Avatar

    I agree happy employees make happy customers.

    Thanks,
    karim – Positive thinking

  9. […] They may also be the only corporation that lowers the price of umbrellas, when it rains! […]

  10. Brian Avatar

    If you enjoy what you do, you will never “work” a single day in your life

    Thanks for the post

  11. […] gets it right. When it is not raining they sell umbrellas for $10 and when it is raining the price drops to $3. […]

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