Little Things

When people talk to me about building brands or businesses they tend to focus on the big things like their strategy, their ad campaign, their brand identity and so on. All very important.

But it is the little things which sometimes make the biggest difference and businesses shouldn't ignore them. It's a bit like a chain - it is only as strong as the weakest link.

I was reminded of little things when we went to pick up our new cars. We had to swap over the old ones and, as invariably occurs in such circumstances, we still had some emptying out to do. We ended up with a small armful of rubbish.

In the expanse of the pristine car showroom there wasn't a bin to be seen anywhere. So we were sort of stranded with our rubbish wondering what to do with it. We ended up walking into a sales person's office and finding a bin behind their desk.

This is not the first time it has happened to me in a car dealership, and not just when switching over a car. When I take my car in for a service there is usually detritus such as a take-away coffee cup or a few old parking receipts which needs disposal, but even in a service area, car dealers aren't inclined to besmirch their premises with garbage bins.

Of course this isn't about bins or the lack of them. It is though a very small sign that the dealership is not really putting themselves in the shoes of their customers. They may be trying to think of their customer but they aren't 'being' their customers and so are missing the little things that are grounded in true customer insight.

Businesses that sweat the small stuff are showing they really empathise with their customers and, as a result, are often creating significant points of difference for their business.

Oh, and whilst on the little things - what does it tell me when the clock on the brand new car is set 4 years, 3 months and 7 hours earlier than the delivery time as I drive out of the showroom?
Forgive the rhetorical question - it tells me they are sloppy when it comes to attention to detail and that is likely to characterise all their customer interactions.