Peloton, Promises, and People Pleasing

<p>People pleasing can feel necessary sometimes. </p><p><br></p><p><em>Especially </em>when you’re in the early stages of running a business. </p><p><br></p><p><strong><em>But, when does the urge to please ALL your clients become destructive?</em></strong></p><p><br></p><p>It’s easy to keep your clients happy when you're starting out and your audience is small. </p><p><br></p><p>However, as your business grows, it gets trickier.</p><p><br></p><p>No matter what you do, there are going to be clients who don’t agree with you.</p><p><br></p><p>And sometimes, they won’t just be trolls on the internet. </p><p><br></p><p>They’ll be long-term, loyal, paying clients who decide to stop supporting you the minute you make a decision that doesn’t align with their beliefs.</p><p><br></p><p>Take Peloton, for instance. </p><p><br></p><p>Just a few weeks ago, Peloton announced that they were increasing the prices of their monthly subscription plan by $5 for the first time in <em>seven years</em>. </p><p><br></p><p>Now to us as business owners, this decision made perfect sense. </p><p><br></p><p>Peloton is struggling to maintain the massive momentum they gained as the pandemic hit in 2020. And higher prices is the most logical way for them to combat their financial struggles. </p><p><br></p><p>Plus, the $5 increase also came with a host of brand new features like 500 new monthly classes, 45 new instructors, and 4 new in-built products, just to name a few.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>But long-time Peloton fans were NOT happy. </strong></p><p><br></p><p>Reactions ranged from “<em>I can’t believe we’re getting punished for buying the bike</em>” to “<em>your new sales strategy is just inconveniencing existing members</em>”. </p><p>And suddenly, Peloton was being painted as some evil overlord looking to steal pennies off of their innocent clients. </p><p><br></p><p>And while the negative feedback you receive might not be at the same scale as Peloton, it’s important to think critically about client backlash. </p><p><br></p><p>How