Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Details Matter

Just before New Year's I had lunch with a good friend. He came out of the washroom eyes as wide as saucers (ok maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration) and he said excitedly "they use 3-ply". It was a higher end restaurant in a relatively small city but he seemed genuinely surprised that such places existed outside Toronto.

OK so not everyone reacts that way but for the difference in the cost between 2 and 3 ply toilet paper, (regardless of what others might think), wouldn't it be worth it? Details matter - and it's one of those things that are difficult to communicate with my China colleagues probably because they've never had to value those differences. Every point of interaction with clients says something about you as Seth Godin also recently pointed out. It's been excruciatingly difficult in developing the forms just the way I like them for our new ERP system, but fortunately I think attitudes are changing. Though to be fair, it's a point that not only Chinese people struggle with.

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