How to get paid for being a customer

Having been frustrated myself at nipping out to the shops on a lunch break and getting stuck in the queue of everyone else with the same idea, I have been enjoying reading the antics of blogger Paul McCrudden and his one man mission to get money out of the companies he regularly visits on the basis that they owe him for the “privilege” of having to hang around waiting to get served.

Using a data collection website, he recorded the time and cost of all his interactions as a consumer over a six-week period from mid-June to the end of July this year. He then invoiced over 50 companies for the time spent with their brand, allowing for a 75% discount on his “standard hourly charge-out rate to reflect the fact that time spent with them is not as 'productive' as it is with my employer”.

He claims the project was to further understand how he spends his life as a consumer and to challenge the basic assumption that consumers are subservient to brands. For example, the data showed he spent 20 hours and 50 minutes with Transport for London, which resulted in two hours and 35 minutes spent reading Metro and 80 minutes reading The London Paper, including the PR stories and ads they contain. He also spent five hours and 16 minutes in Marks & Spencer, and six hours and 53 minutes in Pizza Express - “meaning that I didn't spend nearly as much time and money in their competitor restaurants, with the exception of the reliable Carluccio's (five hours, 40 minutes)”, he posted in justification of the bill he sent out.

Among those invoiced were Fortnum & Mason (£4.25), Pizza Express (£175.53), Marks & Spencer (£134.30), Sainsbury's (£97.75) and Royal Mail post office (£17). But surely, no one was going to pay up?

Wryly, Julian Metcalfe, the founder of food chain Pret A Manger, not only sent a cheque for the sum invoiced, he also offered £22 for the “inconvenience” of having to spend time with the company, rather than competitors, as well as adding an extra pound to the bill to compensate McCrudden for having to walk to the post box to cash the £62 cheque.

Unfortunately, embracing the blogosphere does have its downside as Metcalfe’s account details were also published on McCrudden’s blog (now censored), which ended up in a PR fiasco. But that’s another story my colleague Dan Martin has touched on in his blog.

Also championing responsive customer service was Marcus Parr at Boots customer care, who wrote back appreciating the time McCrudden had spent in its branches, pointing out that its loyalty scheme was a sort of compensation. And grocery chain Cranberry’s managing director went a step further and sent a tongue-in-cheek invoice to McCrudden for the time he had spent reading his letter and looking at his website.

OK, so it’s a bit of a stunt and it’s unlikely McCrudden is going to get anywhere near the £6000 plus he believes he is owed as a customer, but it will be interesting to see if any other firms follow suit at least acknowledging what firms are claiming is important to them right now: customer loyalty.