Success is in the little details
I am a detail guy – they are important to me. Maybe it’s because I used to restore, build and paint custom cars. People (especially relatives) would see the car that I happened to be working on at the time and ask me how much I would charge them to paint their cars. They were always “surprised” by what seemed to them, to be an exorbitant amount. The reality is that I was probably a little low.
(photo by starmist1)
Your attention to “little” details is revealing
People think that a great paint job is in how well you apply the paint – they are wrong. Don’t misunderstand me, applying the paint is important, but it’s only important if all the preceding steps to having a great paint job have been properly done.
It doesn’t matter how well you apply the paint if:
- all the dents and dings have not been removed
- the underlying primer coats have not been sanded to “baby butt” smoothness
- you have used chemicals that are not compatible
My point is that people judge you by your attention to the details.
Crappy customer service is the result of poor attention to detail
The Rotater is rolling. On February 11, the Birmingham News ran an article entitled “Industrial Mechanic invents tool to improve shoulder mobility, finds niche in athletics”. This article drove massive traffic to the Rotater website and our blog, Shoulder Performance & Rehab and resulted in a huge number of orders for the Rotater.
Great – right? Yes and no! The traffic and orders were great – our blog crashing was not. I wrote about it in “The Good Stuff, the Bad Stuff and the Other Stuff”. Well, guess what? It happened again, twice this week. At least this time, I did not spend two days trying to figure out what the problem was.
I called customer service and waited on hold for about an hour. I didn’t get too worked up, because I put the phone on speaker and spent the time searching for a new host.
When someone finally answered the phone, I told her the problem expecting it to be corrected right away – I was in for a fight. This company’s situation is so bad, that they have resorted to having a “front line” person screen technical support issues. Essentially her job was to find out what I wanted and then she would prioritize and have technical support get back in touch with me.
I told her that this solution was not acceptable.
- She stalled - I didn’t budge.
- I asked to speak to her boss. He/she was not there.
- I asked to speak with technical support – they were busy.
- I asked to speak to “anyone” other than her – she put me on hold.
- I threatened to change hosts – technical support came on the phone.
The Rotater article is picked up on the newswire
The article that I mentioned above, was picked up by the Ann Arbor News and ran this week under a different title – “Rotater Cuff Injuries Inspire Invention”. (I have not been able to find a link to the article, but I have seen a copy of the article.)
The result – more traffic, more orders and more down-time for the blog. My problem is that I don’t want to alert our current hosting service to this third assault on our blog, because they informed me when I had it reset the second time, that if it happened a third time – they would suspend our account. Because we are exclusively a web-based business, this would put us “out of business”.
Solution: Pay attention to the “little” details
I have found a new host and am in the process of moving our website and blog. It is slow, tedious, time-consuming and scary, but hopefully all will be finished by this weekend.
I started this post talking about “attention to detail”. People noticed my paint jobs as a result of my attention to the details. Your success or lack of success is the result of your attention to the details. Let me try to explain.
The Rotater is a marvelous shoulder rehabilitation and stretching device – invented by an industrial mechanic – with a very southern accent. Not exactly where you would expect a revolutionary piece of medical / athletic training equipment to come from. But when people come to our website, they don’t see a bunch of hype.
- We tell them what the Rotater does
- We show a video demonstrating how the Rotater works
- We provide links to exercises that they can down-load and show to their doctors and therapists
- We provide real testimonials of real people, real doctors, real athletes / trainers and real physical therapists
- We include links to publications who are noticing the Rotater ( we’ve been in business since August 2007 and have been published eight times – and more is to come)
People who visit the Rotater website don’t know me or Scott, so we’re very careful to pay attention to the details:
- We answer every email – as quickly as possible
- We return phone calls – every time
- We deal with any issues – right away
- We don’t try to sell to every person – the Rotater won’t help everyone
- If someone is not happy – we refund their money (out of thousands, we have had two Rotaters returned)
People learn about you because of your attention to detail. Here is the take home message – There are no small details, everything counts and someone is paying attention to how you handle every situation.
It’s the small stuff that has the greatest return on you investment. Make it a point to pay attention to the details – Hey it works for Nordstrom (they are legendary for customer service) and it’ll work for you.
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External Rotation with The Rotater
"Thanks to the rotater I was able to get back to work and not lose the use of my shoulder in this demanding profession."
- Officer D. Pesko
Internal Rotation withThe Rotater
"...The Rotater has become as much a part of my morning as my cup of coffee...Thanks for a great product!!"
Perry R. Green
Director of Instruction
The Golf Club at Wescott Plantation
Rotator Cuff Strengthening & Stabilization
"I just received the Rotater today and I am instantly convinced that every baseball player needs to have this tool in their arsenal! Not only is it simple to use, it does exactly what you expect it to do with no learning curve."
Coach Dan Huff, CSCS
www.baseballstrength.com
Chris:
Congratulations on the traffic hits and the resulting orders. Success can be exhilarating as well as painful as you saw from what happened.
Which hosting server are you moving to? Which one did you have before? I want to make sure I don’t go to the same one you had b/c of the poor customer service.
Stephen
Stephen Hopson’s last blog post..End of the Week Gratitude Theme #17 - Video Post #3
I will send you prayers for a smooth transition. To me, customer service is definitely about the details and about the customer. That server will not be in business for long from the sound of it. The first step in customer service is always putting the customer first. You have to like people. Some businesses are just not people friendly. If you want to stay in business, you have to be.
Patricia - Spiritual Journey Of A Lightworker’s last blog post..A New Earth
Stephen - thanks for your support. I am moving therotater.com to Hostgator.com
Give me a couple of days before I reveal my old host - I don’t want to give anything away until I am safely out of harms way.
Patricia - thanks for your prayers. Amen to your comments about customer service. How can you build trust and a relationship without it. In today’s world, there are just too many options to have to put up with poor customer service.
I completely agree that the small stuff matters. When that’s done right, people will remember. I always do! Good luck with your server. I hope it’s all better soon!
Anali’s last blog post..Meal Mixer Winner!
It’s the small stuff that shows people that we can be trusted and proves that we are people of integrity. Thanks for your well wishes.
When I visit our local Home Depot, I always check register 1 to see if Melanie is working. The only way I know Melanie is by being fortunate enough to end up in her line one day. She is extremely nice and always exudes an “it’s a great day!” feeling. It’s really nice to find a sales associate who doesn’t sigh and roll their eyes before they put on a fake smile and greeting. These are the little details that make the difference in where I spend my money.
Eric Sanders’s last blog post..Who’s Yo Daddy?
Low price doesn’t mean a thing. People do business with people they like - people who make you (and me) feel special.