A little can go a long way, so the saying goes...
by Marcus Grodentz
Maybe it’s just me...but I don’t think so.
I get super-excited by little things.
The other day my wife and I – we got married five weeks ago! – went into a local butcher to order our Christmas turkey.
I love being able to support local businesses especially when they give good service. The ‘bird’ we had from him last year was superb.
So we were in his shop and ‘dithering’ about how big a turkey we would need. This year we have relatives coming for Christmas lunch and were undecided on size.
“Let me help you,” said our butcher. He really is the epitome of the friendly, jovial character of story-books.
With that he produced last year’s order book with a flourish and leafed through it.
“There you are,” he said finding my name and proceeded to tell us exactly what we had ordered the previous Christmas.
I was mega-impressed. It was only a little thing but it showed service and attention to detail. I loved it.
It was the same with the lady who made our wedding cake. She recently opened a store in our village. She delivered the cake to the venue where we were having our service and ‘Wedding Breakfast’
But our evening party was at a different venue and we wanted to actually cut the cake there for all of our guests.
She offered to come back in the evening and re-assemble our cake after we had taken it apart to transport it between venues.
Not only great service but it was a delight to eat too.
On a different note I was walking down the road recently and passed an elderly couple coming the other way. The lady looked at me and gave me the brightest of smiles.
Not only did that make me feel really good but it somehow set me up for the rest of the day. Even now thinking about it makes me smile. It really is rather extraordinary.
What are the ‘little things’ that you do in your business that make ‘all the difference’ to your customers and clients?
What are the little things that you can change in your life that will have extraordinary effects?
Marcus Grodentz is a former head of communications for Gloucester City Council and now runs Novus Life Coaching. He offers a free two-hour coaching session - contact him for more info.
image via the Royal Library of Denmark
