Johnny Tan thought it was rather bright that privilege cards were handed out to the right crowd to garner loyal patronage and free spending in his club. Apart from waivering cover charges, these members had good discounts on food and beverage. The idea was that the right crowd would attract the wrong crowd who would pay the wrong prices to cover the discounted prices.
Suhaimi was one of the early members. Indeed, he felt privileged as he was lavished with attentive service and he knew he paid less than the
others. Ganesh was of the others. A gangly lad with bad skin, he bided his time because he would soon be part of the
faceless privileged.Business was brisk and Johnny felt vindicated. A good majority of the patrons became members. But Suhaimi didnt feel special anymore and the staff's attention was diluted amongst the Toms, Janes and Marys. Johnny being a good man, extended additional privileges to Suhaimi in recognition of his standing. Of course, this cycle of discounting didnt stop there. Toms, Janes and Marys insisted on it because they felt they have contributed to the success of the club.
Ganesh became privileged but not a member. It didnt matter as he was rewarded with the fruits of discontentment of
others. Johnny had to end the discriminatory pricing practices as he was losing money and it became operationally inefficient to have multiple systems.
Thats not the end of Johnny's tale. Like all great leaders, he had a Turnaround Plan, littered with KPIs (key performance indicators), no less. Lessons were learnt and 2 KPIs were set:
30% increase in revenue
Limit membership to 100 top spenders and reward them accordingly
The idea was to reward the selected members with points that could be exchanged for gifts as a result from their spending. Just like the credit card companies.
Suhaimi was member No. 8. He also got smarter after the first experiment. Ganesh became his quick buddy, and he extended his privileges to Ganesh provided he spends under his membership. Suhaimi gets his points, Ganesh gets his privilege pricing and unfortunately, Johnny gets a bigger debt. Screw the KPIs,
the rakyat is happy.
Everything's dandy in Bolehland again.