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My dear, feisty Grandmother Margaret knew a thing or two about incentives and revenge. She was an independent woman, living alone for more than a decade in her large tudor-style home in Idaho. The very thought of having to live in an assisted living center was so repugnant to her that she made sure everyone around her knew her wish and secretly planned revenge on anyone that dared defy said wish.
“I’ll never forgive you,” she would state matter-of-factly on the slightest hint at her kids worrying about her living alone.
Not until her passing did we find out how serious she was.
In her will she included a clause that if any or all of her children ever moved her into an assisted living center or retirement community, they were automatically written out of the will. Fortunately for her children, that never happened, but what a surprise it was to them to find that out! (incidentally, her lawyer said he had never seen such a request in a will in his 20+ career).
In a similar case, a recently deceased Doctor used a strong incentive in his will to his wife:
“[In his will,] Dr. Ivins wrote of his wish to be cremated and have his ashes scattered. But fearing that his wife, Diane, and their two children might not honor the request, he came up with a novel way to enforce his demand: threatening to make a bequest to an organization he knew his wife opposed, Planned Parenthood.
“If my remains are not cremated and my ashes are not scattered or spread on the ground, I give to Planned Parenthood of Maryland” $50,000, Dr. Ivins wrote in the will.”
With this incentive in place and known by his wife, he was cremated, of course.
Find out what motivates your customers, make sure you can add value, then test them out (I’d skip out on the hidden revenge part, however).
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