Honour is not dead

• Mar 24, 2020 • by Paul Ingraham
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Weekly nuggets of pain science news and insight, usually 100-300 words, with the occasional longer post. The blog is the “director’s commentary” on the core content of PainScience.com: a library of major articles and books about common painful problems and popular treatments. See the blog archives or updates for the whole site.

Ten days ago I started offering a 50% rebate to customers un- or under-employed because of COVID-19 (see the books page). I chose to offer a rebate upon request, rather than just dropping my prices, mainly to make it a bit more personal.

And so far? It’s working great. Feels very “everyone wins.” The response has been rather beautiful, actually. Only 10% of customers are claiming the rebate — and every email has been poignant, personal, earnest, brave.

And the other 90%? Every sale says something just as nice: “Thanks, but I’m good—happy to pay full price.” ❤️ And so every sale means more than usual.

The Internet has become a terrible place in so many ways. But I find it fascinating and reassuring that an honour-powered deal can not only work for an online business, but work well. All is not lost!