There are the marvelous tax laws in Western Europe. If I purchase something here, since I am both a citizen outside of Western Europe and I live outside of Western Europe, I should have all the taxes refunded to me as I leave the country where I made my purchases. I have special receipts for the whole process, which clearly state I will receive such and such amount of euros as I leave the country. This is a great way to get me to spend my money here!
However, they make the process all but impossible at the airport. This stamp that you need is at one end of the airport, the obscure tax office at the other end, and then the final place to actually receive money in your hand can't even be found on the other side of security. The entire process, hidden location of offices, lack of signs and instructions, and multiple steps, are designed to prevent anyone from actually getting a tax refund. I travel 100,000 miles a year all over the world, and I could have navigated the whole process and completed it if . . . if I had had two solid hours to do little else but walk from one end of a very large airport to the other end, several times over.
I value my time too highly to do so, and that is what they are betting on for sure, that the small amount of money will be insufficient to tempt me, once the difficulty of the process becomes clear. This is why I so rarely purchase high price items within Western Europe. While they occasionally get a little bit of extra off of me like they did today, for the most part they lose 10's of thousands of euros of potential purchases because I don't do regular business with bait and switch vendors, even if they are the government.
The question for us leaders is about transparency, delivering at least as much as you promised, and making it easy for those following us to receive what we said they would receive. Otherwise we are doing the same horrible transaction with our clients, team or followers, and we are no better than the impossible-to-find-and-accomplish-tax-refund-offices in every airport in Western Europe. My friends - under-promise and over-deliver. That is the way to build your business and your reputation.
However, they make the process all but impossible at the airport. This stamp that you need is at one end of the airport, the obscure tax office at the other end, and then the final place to actually receive money in your hand can't even be found on the other side of security. The entire process, hidden location of offices, lack of signs and instructions, and multiple steps, are designed to prevent anyone from actually getting a tax refund. I travel 100,000 miles a year all over the world, and I could have navigated the whole process and completed it if . . . if I had had two solid hours to do little else but walk from one end of a very large airport to the other end, several times over.
I value my time too highly to do so, and that is what they are betting on for sure, that the small amount of money will be insufficient to tempt me, once the difficulty of the process becomes clear. This is why I so rarely purchase high price items within Western Europe. While they occasionally get a little bit of extra off of me like they did today, for the most part they lose 10's of thousands of euros of potential purchases because I don't do regular business with bait and switch vendors, even if they are the government.
The question for us leaders is about transparency, delivering at least as much as you promised, and making it easy for those following us to receive what we said they would receive. Otherwise we are doing the same horrible transaction with our clients, team or followers, and we are no better than the impossible-to-find-and-accomplish-tax-refund-offices in every airport in Western Europe. My friends - under-promise and over-deliver. That is the way to build your business and your reputation.
