Indispensable: How to Become the Company That Your Customers Can't Live Without

Chapter 8. Obvious but Often Overlooked

Duh!

It's a never-ending source of amazement, amusement, and frustration for me to see how many people in business overlook the most obvious truths. This is kindergarten stuff like, "first impressions count," and "saying it's so doesn't make it so," and "always tell the truth." It's as if some people put on blinders when confronted with a glaring weakness in their company. This chapter is a look at some of the obvious mistakes made by companies that keep them from becoming indispensable. This is the "Duh!" stuff that is strangling thousands of companies with good products and good services that seemingly don't have a clue about how to behave sometimes. Remember: We don't get hurt by what we don't know. We get hurt by what we know but don't do.

Obvious 1: You Had Me at Hello

In the movie Jerry Maguire the title character, played by Tom Cruise, is looking for the right words to win the heart of Dorothy Boyd, played by Renee Zellweger. As he stammers his way through his clumsy expression of feelings, she stops him by saying, "You had me at hello." You can have your customers at hello, if you say it right. There is more and more evidence that how a customer is met in the initial contact with a company is a determining factor in whether she stays or leaves, both in the short term and long term.

This week I had lunch with a friend who works at one of the best companies I know. They do everything right, almost all the time. I say "almost all the time" ...