Client Collaboration and the IKEA Effect

One of my favorite lists of the year is Harvard Business Review’s Breakthrough Ideas for 2009.  As always, the entire list is worth a read, but the one that caught my eye is  one labeled The IKEA effect, which suggests that people are willing to pay more for things they had a hand in creating:

When people construct products themselves, from bookshelves to Build-a-Bears, they come to overvalue their (often poorly made) creations. We call this phenomenon the IKEA effect, in honor of the wildly successful Swedish manufacturer whose products typically arrive with some assembly required.

In one of our studies we asked people to fold origami and then to bid on their own creations along with other people’s. They were consistently willing to pay more for their own origami. In fact, they were so enamored of their amateurish creations that they valued them as highly as origami made by experts.

What does this mean for professional service providers?  Instead of defaulting to a “Let me handle that for you” position with clients, require them to actively participate in their case.  By collaborating with them, and allowing them to make meaningful contributions to the work you (both) do, they’ll likely value your services more and be happier with the end result.