I had been thinking all day long about eating a juicy cheeseburger. Have you ever had a day like that? A day when you seem fixated on one thing. I admit that it would more politically correct to have my psychic energy focused on world peace or finding the cure for cancer, but sometimes "A Cheeseburger in Paradise" is just that. Paradise!.
On my way home I pulled off into the drive-up lane of my favorite hamburger stand. I ordered cheeseburgers for Vickie and me. Hers without pickles and mine with. I like pickles.
I got to the house and immediately went to the kitchen. I pulled out our burgers and made sure Vickie’s was sans pickles and then chomped down on mine. Instead of biting into the burger I had been dreaming about I got a mouth full of pickles. Like I said, I like pickles, but upon inspection I found all the pickles on this burger to be stacked like poker chips in the middle of my burger. I rearranged all the pickles to cover the patty and settled back to eating my dinner. While I was eating I came to two conclusions.
The first was that I ordered a burger with pickles and I received a burger with pickles. Though my burger was complete as ordered there was something wrong. I kept thinking, “How hard is it to put the pickles on the burger the right way?” Slapping a handful of pickle slices on my burger demonstrated to me that the person that made my meal did not care much for the quality of his/her work, the reputation of the burger joint or my satisfaction. As a customer my expectations were not met.
The second conclusion was that I must be equally focused on delivering not just the ”pickles” to my customers but pickles just the way my customers want them. How do you do that? This sounds like a tall order. The reality it is pretty basic stuff. It starts with asking, then listening, then finally delivering.
This is applicable to whatever business you are in. Are you just filling orders, or all you giving your customers what they want, how they wanted every time? Small details like how the pickles are put on a burger can be the difference between losing and keeping a customer because it shows how you feel about your product and how you feel about your customer. It is all about meeting expectations of your customers. You created those expectations via your marketing efforts. The question is are you delivering on your promises?
What examples do you have of little things like the pickle that can make a difference? Let’s hear from you. Please post your comments.
