Unless someone does, things start to fray around the edges. Often it’s the CEO or the manager who sets a standard of caring about the details. Even better is a culture where everyone cares, and where each person reinforces that horizontally throughout the team. You’ve probably been to the hotel that serves refrigerated tomatoes in January at their $20 breakfast, that doesn’t answer the phone when you call the front desk, that has a shower curtain that is falling off the rack and a slightly snarky concierge. This is in sharp relief to that hotel down the street, the one that costs just the same, but gets the details right. It’s obviously not about access to capital (doing it right doesn’t cost more). It’s about caring enough to make an effort. If we define good enough sufficiently low, we’ll probably meet our standards. Caring involves raising that bar to the point where the team has to stretch. Of course, the manager of the mediocre hotel that’s reading this, the staff member of the mediocre restaurant that just got forwarded this note—they have a great excuse. Time’s are tough, money is tight, the team wasn’t hired by me, nobody else cares, I’m only going to be doing this gig for a year, our customers are jerks… who cares? Caring, it turns out, is a competitive advantage, and one that takes effort, not money. Like most things that are worth doing, it’s not easy at first and the one who cares isn’t going to get a standing ovation from those that are merely phoning it in. I think it’s this lack of early positive feedback that makes caring in service businesses so rare. Which is precisely what makes it valuable. -Seth Godin
We would like to Thank you all who supported our brand this year!!!! We really appreciate it! To all of the new markets, and new customers we Thank You for taking a shot on out brand!!!
To all of the INDIVIDUALS that have supported us from year to year Thank You!!
It’s been an awesome year, and couldn’t have accomplished any of the things we did without the support of the INDIVIDUALS!
To the boutiques and retail locations that allow our brand to be placed in their stores, Thank You!
The trials, and obstacles gave us the fuel to continue to push forward this year! It’s been fun.
We’re in a state of transition and growth so prepare for greater things in 2012!
Thank You All!!!!!!
No Rules. Just INDIVIDUALITY!
