1) External Perspective. When planning do everything from the view of the person who you are providing the serivce/product for - then you will see the possible exasperations and difficulties that may arise. This is likley to come at your expense - as making things easy for others will mean you will have to go out of your way.

2) Good Internal ... See MoreCommunication. Make sure your team/workforce know the protocol for all you have planned, that they have the answers to potential questions and the authority to offer solutions.

3) Simplicity of Goals. Dont make your objective to convoluted - set your goals down and assess how realisitc they are, especially in regards to managing expectation - if you are going to drop a ball, rather remove the ball and keep satisfaction or provide it as a "surprise".

Firstly look at process, this needs to be taken from the pillar of external perspective. Look at starbucks for example, they have considered all the services they provide and arranged them in a logical order that you can have your drink customised to your specification.

1) You ask "Are you eating in or out?" - from this you know whether to give a china mug, or a paper take away cup
2) What size would you like? - we now know the necessary size.
3) What drink (service would you like) - at this point they can ask for their desired product, and then add the modifications that are offered as extras with this product (like syrup or extra espresso shots).... See More
4) The drink is made to the preference of the customer!

For this to work all the staff are trained to know this process, and to deal with extra requirements (the added options) under their own esteem. This fits with the technical supports of a till and a communication system that guides the worker to deal with all the criteria upon taking the order and then to relay this to the person making the drink.

The goal is simple - and all is covered in two questions
1) What do we offer?
2) Out of what we offer what does this customer want?

This is applied through a simple process that guides the staff member and client to recieve all that they want and to make sure satisfaction is achieved (at least).

This system can be applied to any porduct (that comes with modifications or updates) or to any service. As you say Scott you need processes and technology/techniques that guide all the options in an easy step. Most problems occur when all options are isolated from each other and dealt with seperately, we then find that one thing was left out forgotten or doesnt fit with the rest of the product/service. All things need to be incorporated together into a process which identifies what can work with what - to make sure that clashes do not occur.

Process and technical are very important in the application of the above pillars, flow charts of all that you offer and the order with which they come may be the best way forward!

Hi Scott,
I'm perplexed by today's blog. Finding the idea that all customers simply don't care quite negative. However I definitely subscribe to your closing comment, “They just want it to work”.

Over the weekend I posted a complaint to Carluccio's restaurant via Twitter. My reason was not because I didn't care or was just annoyed by the service we didn't receive. Instead it was because I did care and wanted the restaurant team to improve. If they respond they will certainly improve how I care and regard for their brand.

In my mind, accepting that people 'don't care' from day one, seems to fly in the face of any ideas of brand loyalty. Suggesting there is something inherently wrong in the way most brands publicly interact with their customers (or not as the Eurostar model suggested). As did you, I completely agree with Richard Baker's comment “…if your product is available out of office hours, so should you be.”.

Should we just get comfortable accepting 'people don't care' as the status-quo? Or should brands not be asking ‘Why don't people care’ and ‘what can we do to change this’?

Very interested to read the comments of those more clued-up on this subject.

Thanks for the challenge and the thought through comment :-)

My response: Brand Advocates are the few, not the many. And yes, whilst in your instance of Carluccios you show you did care, the reason why you care is because Carluccio's normally does work - they have a history of good service, and you were prepared to help them over the break.

Advocates can stand breaks to service, but no one advocates continually broken service.

Agreed Scott. Great post.

Thanks Jamies

So how can you use this to your advantage?