That is the question… I just ordered tickets from a theater in town and due to needing special seating for a companion, I had to call rather than order online. That was somewhat annoying to start with, but that’s for a different discussion! After securing my seats, I was treated to nearly five minutes of the fashionable “up-selling.” I actually felt sorry for the staff member who had to tell me about three special opportunities, and then, after I politely declined (I promise I was polite), she had to ask me for a donation.

This whole experience annoyed me, yes, but it actually set me to thinking about why? Isn’t that our job in marketing, to sell? So up-selling is just selling with a little steroid thrown in, right? Was I just in a hurry and impatient?

But here’s the problem. It didn’t work with me, and it actually sent me in the opposite direction. I felt like a commodity, a transaction, not a patron or a member.

Today in Thomas Cott’s “You’ve Cott Mail” (highly recommended for its daily curation of important stories on a topic), there are four stories related to up-selling (both pro and con). Fascinating reading. But the best in my opinion was the last: it reframed the whole discussion to ask what if we focus on “up-service” instead of up-selling? The concept is to provide more customer service, to add value to the relationship, rather than to simply add cash to a transaction. The article can be found here.

So that’s what we at Parenteau Graves are going to put in our hopper. How can we help our clients be focused on up-service, on providing more service that leads to a better customer experience?