8 ms·

Small Things

177 points by jger15 2y ago

thesuperbigfrog 2y ago
Good customer experience matters. People remember how they were treated and they will be more loyal to a company that goes the extra mile to give them what they need. Years ago when I worked at Amazon, leaders made customer experience a priority and empowered us to do what was needed to ensure a good customer experience even if would cost the company more. I am not sure if things are the same there now, but it taught me a lot about how a company's relationship with its customers matters for the company's long-term growth and customer loyalty. The enshittification trends we see today are the opposite. Companies are all to happy to make quick profits by choosing to put what is best for the company ahead of the customer experience. Customer data is sold and shared. Ads are cramed into every possible space. Customers are opted in to onerous legal agreements and forced arbitration. Dark patterns abound. Customers notice. Customers remember. And when the circumstances are right they will drop such companies and watch them burn with pleasure. The golden rule still holds and no company is "too big to fail".
- Manfred 2y ago
  All these things matter when you try to build an enduring company instead of the embrace, squeeze, and run strategy. I don't think that happens a lot any more, if we are lucky one company might keep its course for 20 years and then it gets sold or the founder moves on.
- Swizec 2y ago
  I once took a hard look at our user surveys. As a software engineer I’m not really expected to care. All our happiest customers talked about the service experience. All our grumpiest customers talk about the service experience. None of our users gave two shits about the software. All they cared about was did we solve their problem on that day when they needed us. That’s when I realized we’re a software-enabled service company. It changed how I prioritize things.
  - creer 2y ago
    Funny you mention surveys! Businesses have been sending me surveys which are far worse than the service experience was itself. This is not a good move: the service was fine but the survey itself was a truly bad experience both in broad lines and detail. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
- wrs 2y ago
  I just had an Amazon package stolen from my porch with $500 of items in it that I needed quickly. I reordered everything for delivery next day, and started a chat in the app. The only thing they wanted to know was if I wanted the refund on my credit card or as a gift balance. (I’ve been an Amazon customer since 1997, so that might factor in.) But on the other hand, the quality of the actual product catalog is now abysmal. Way too many clones of Ali Express items with literally random brand names and scam listings. I still sort of trust “Sold by Amazon” listings, but they’re making it harder to filter on that. So in this area the accounting department is clearly outranking the customer experience department.
  - creer 2y ago
    Re. product quality: And yet the service still makes a difference - or the entire difference perhaps. Recently two items were botched by Aliexpress for me. Talking to the vendors, the shippers and then Aliexpress was absurdly horrible. These were not expensive products but all of them fought every step of the way to deliver the shittiest experience possible (irrelevant of the products themselves). And 6 months later I still don't have functional parts. It was entirely up to Aliexpress to lose my business and they did with gusto. Amazon probably sells the same item, just for more money, but they were reinforced as the right balance of price and assurance that I will end up with the item reasonably fast and low-hassle.
ashnehete 2y ago
Tangential, but the line saying: "smiles are always free" reminds me of the often overlooked cost of emotional labour performed especially by the service industry. We should also acknowledge this small thing.
- jareklupinski 2y ago
  > "smiles are always free" you're not wrong; nothing is free: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_mask_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_mask_syndrome > ...subjects develop depression and physical illness as a result of prolonged, unnatural smiling.
- pizzafeelsright 2y ago
  I am so far removed from this now that it feels foreign to me. In my house we must have a good attitude or be silent. It's fine to be angry or sad, just no crying or whining. Every request for a hug must be met with a hug. I expect the emotional exercise to help workout the management of emotions and adjusting of attitude.
  - lukevp 2y ago
    Your house sounds a little toxic. I couldn’t tell in your post if you were positive or negative toward this, but it sounds like a denial of human emotion. Why would anyone ban crying? Sounds like the “turn it off” approach from the Book of Mormon.
    - lelanthran 2y ago
      > Sounds like the “turn it off” approach from the Book of Mormon. I'm not familiar with that. What is it?
      - aspenmayer 2y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Mormon_(musical) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Mormon_(musical) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_6iKKoKyBM&list=OLAK5uy_lKHGV8q5SQ2HhnELmuOdf462IITfXRVDY&index=5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_6iKKoKyBM&list=OLAK5uy_lKH... https://genius.com/Original-broadway-cast-of-the-book-of-mormon-turn-it-off-lyrics https://genius.com/Original-broadway-cast-of-the-book-of-mor... https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1686764,1686764 https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1686764,1686764 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_suppression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_suppression
jvans 2y ago
small things don't show up on p&l reports or a/b tests so the bean counters ignore them. But they have an outsized impact on long term success and people who are really great at what they do sweat the small stuff regardless of the numbers
didgetmaster 2y ago
I recently moved and wanted the post office to forward my mail. I could fill out the physical card or I could go online and fill out a form and pay a $1.10 fee for verification. The fee was small enough that I thought it was worth saving the hassle. As I write this, the other browser tab for the post office web site is still displaying the 'loading' window with no end in sight after I entered all my info. I guess it is back to doing it the hard way. IT IS the small things...
lukevp 2y ago
This is something Apple does amazingly well. The first touch point on a new Apple product is the box, and they use high end, thick cardboard that’s got a great finish. When you go to open the box, the interface between the bottom and top halves is so perfectly fitted that there’s a weightiness to removing the lid, like it has a seal. It probably costs barely anything to make the box better like that, but every time I buy an Apple product I notice it, and I feel like they care about the small things. I used to be anti-Apple. I used Android or Windows Phone and used Windows or Linux on PC. I thought the extra cost of Apple was a scam. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate a company that doesn’t BS me and waste my time. Windows has ads and malware built into the OS. They charge you for OS upgrades. macOS is just free and ad-free. The laptop hardware doesn’t cut corners. Yes, it’s expensive, but everyone knows of its quality. in 5 years it still has value. Try and sell a 5 year old windows laptop. This extends to all their other products and services. I pay more to not be the product, and to have privacy. I’ll make that deal all day.
- wrs 2y ago
  “It’s the small things” has driven Apple design for decades. And it’s a cultural thing, not just the “design department”. I remember back in the mid-90s when I left Apple to work at Microsoft and realized how rare it is to have software developers who view everything through the lens of the end user experience, even if they’re working on the file system or the boot sequence. Random example: One of the first things I asked when I got there was “why, when you turn on a Windows PC, does it start your user experience by filling the screen with scary gibberish?” That got fixed, but it took many years, partially because of all the coordination needed in the PC ecosystem to do anything, but mostly because nobody really cared all that much.
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    That ingrained cultural attention to detail is probably the only thing I miss about working there. Too many other tech companies I've worked at just don't care about things they consider "edge cases". Make the "key customer journey" (in other words the happy-path) work and you're done. Is "making it beautiful" in the contract? No? Then don't work on it! Oh, the software doesn't work in landscape mode? P3 bug, we'll fix it later--just ship ship ship. Cheap out and make the casing plastic instead of metal so you can save $0.30 on each device. KPIs! OKRs! metrics! That's all the rest of the industry runs on.
creeble 2y ago
I too have been a State Farm customer for over 30 years, and my proof of insurance cards come with perforations. I too would notice and care if they did not. Maybe he’s on paperless?
marcosdumay 2y ago
Management by key process indicators is such a surreal thing. Any sane human would notice that it's pointless to go out of your way to make a completely optional interaction with your customers and do it so badly that the customer will leave unsatisfied. The only way you get that is by building a clearly stupid AI, and subjecting people to its whims. What is a management best practice, so yeah, let's do it.
ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
I do this with UI. In fact, I'm working on a backend dashboard app, right now. Only two of us (nerdy) types will ever use it (maybe more, if things take off, but it's not a priority). I will be spending at least three days, polishing up a "thermometer" UI, for the date ranges. The main public app, itself, is a big aggregation of "small things," like custom transition animations, haptics, font choices, etc. The designer was quite adamant about "small things," often complaining about half-pixel (!) offsets. That's one of the reasons I write native, and also one of the reasons that I'm using UIKit/AutoLayout, because they let me do anything I want (but I don't really like AutoLayout -I'm just good with it). People seem to like it.
gumby 2y ago
There are longstanding lessons in this point that predate software. The US car companies slid in the 60s and 70s by incrementally cutting “irrelevant” costs, like not painting under the seats, cheaper knobs, and the like. Each of these changes was imperceptible but their sum was noticeable. Ironically their own European and especially Japanese competition went the other way: started cheap (so people expected cheap knobs) and then incrementally moved upmarket (“Wow, this cheap car is nicer than I had expected” -> premium market). Right now the software and especially SaaS worlds seem stuck in their own 1970s Detroit era. Dangerous crap,but with little alternative. I don’t see any “Japanese manufacturers” (to extend the analogy) on the horizon.
- euroderf 2y ago
  So if American car companies were trying the "boiling frog" effect, what is the name for its opposite that Japanese car companies were trying ?
  - samatman 2y ago
    The word is 'kaizen'.
eviks 2y ago
If small things mattered, you wouldn't have so many of them neglected. "(And smiles they are free." Forced service smiles aren't free, but a result of continuous spend on training the service personnel
- barnabee 2y ago
  > If small things mattered, you wouldn't have so many of them neglected. People are often not good understanding and deciding what matters, groups of people are generally even worse. It's why aircraft have checklists and companies like Apple have certain things so ingrained in their culture.
dingosity 2y ago
Yes and no. You have to do the big things right before you can do the small things right. For instance, every flight I've taken on United in the past 5 years (about 10 or so) has been delayed by a mechanical or scheduling issue. Two of them were delayed to the point where I missed a connection. I do not fly United anymore. I my mind (and it's likely largely affected by which airports I frequently fly into) it's Delta, American and Alaska competing for my business. Even though I fly to/through DFW frequently, I try to avoid American because of how enshittified their frequent flyer program has become. How the mighty have fallen. It is a little thing (the enshittified frequent flyer program), but it keeps me from seriously considering flying American unless there's no alternative. So yes... small things matter (American) but only because big things have already eliminated potential service providers (United.)
- samatman 2y ago
  > You have to do the big things right before you can do the small things right. Doing the small things right is how the big things get done right. Attention to detail is a culture, and it's as applicable to turning planes around on time as it is to giving premium customers a premium experience, and ordinary customers a surprisingly nice experience.
- happypumpkin 2y ago
  For me Delta has been the one that is garbage lately. It used to be my favorite but the last five flights have all had something go wrong. When I requested proof of delay for travel insurance it took them ages to send it over. Tbf though a lot of the issues might just be related to their hub being in Atlanta. I suppose it is hard to make such a gigantic airport efficient but wow do I hate Atlanta layovers (and being stuck there overnight when something goes wrong). Only one I've never had issues with is Alaska but Southwest is usually good, plus their boarding procedure is by far the most organized. Seriously, why do so many airlines just make it a mad-dash by group?
ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
I worked for almost 27 years, for a company that is renowned for "small things." Their stuff costs a lot more than most, but thousands of customers thought they were worth the premium, and built their entire careers around that equipment. I think they ran into trouble, when they started selling huge numbers of cheaper items. They made a lot of money, but their brand lost its sheen. I'm hoping that they are re-establishing their original baseline. It did teach me to take this stuff seriously, though. It's not a matter of process; it's a matter of culture, and that is something that needs to be developed organically.
- sanderjd 2y ago
  I think this is sort of a "barbell effect" thing. Both models can work very well, but you can't really do both, you have to pick your approach and commit to it. This reminds me of something I realized fairly late (maybe embarrassingly so) into my career. For the longest time, I had all these opinions about how software should be made, that is, universally, and would often feel very frustrated and discontented because nobody seemed to want to do things the right way. But then I finally realized at some point that what was really going on was that different projects can be very different, and different approaches make more sense for different things. To use extreme examples, a single instance of a typical website-with-some-behavior vs. the control systems for a spacecraft. It's perfectly fine to build that website in a blitz using a CMS or framework with bog standard components and limited testing. But all you're going to manage with that same approach in the latter case is to crash your spacecraft. But I also realized that where I was going wrong was in trying to impose my desires onto whatever project I happened to be working on, rather than imposing them onto my choice of what to work on. So I started thinking harder about what kinds of things I wanted to do, and being more deliberate in finding those projects, and convincing people to bring me onto them. (With somewhat mixed success of course... career development is hard enough when just going with the flow, let alone adding on conditions...) To bring it back on topic, the analogy I'm drawing is: If you really want to do formal verification in all your projects, you shouldn't work on websites! And if you really want to pay attention to all the small little niceties, you shouldn't build a business with tight margins that are made up in volume!
BWStearns 2y ago
It reminds me of that shields down article[0] but for your customers. Maybe it’s just me but if there are enough little interactions with a vendor that go poorly because of the counterparty clearly not giving a shit they end up in a kind of dead-to-me zone. I’ll still be polite and all but the second an alternative is there I’m gone. Alternatively there are companies that are always pleasant to interact with. Avemco is an insurance company I use and any time I have a question for them they either have the answer or go find it immediately. When it’s time to renew they proactively check if I’m eligible for better rates. even if someone came in with a quote at a 30% premium discount I’d probably not hear them out because I just don’t expect such service elsewhere. It’s sad that these nice experiences get optimized away, I honestly think people would be nicer to each other if it didn’t constantly feel like everyone was constantly racing to the bottom. 0: https://randsinrepose.com/archives/shields-down/ https://randsinrepose.com/archives/shields-down/
Nevermark 2y ago
> Imagine if you were a cable company or publisher and re-allocate the “stop them from unsubscribing” budget where you slash prices, increase channels in a bundle or enhance broadband speeds to people who are quitting, to instead reward the most loyal customers by going to them and cutting their fees and/or upgrading their services to simply say thank you. Imagine if they readily cancelled you, and if you were a long time customer, let you know they were either going to refund your last months bill, or gave you an additional free month, whichever would help you the most as you moved on? I know I wouldn't ever forget that. Precisely because they had no reason to do it than to value helping me, current customer or not. And how little would that month's service cost them? An imperceptible marginal cost.
ziofill 2y ago
After using my first macbook for about 8 years (bought in 2005), I went to the Apple Store in Glasgow for a new battery and they just gifted it to me. I asked them why and they replied “It’s a random act of kindness”. Well, it did tattoo in my memory.
eszed 2y ago
I recently ordered some parts for my car. It was a complex schedule of repairs between my main mechanic, the tire shop, some of my own work, and another guy - and with a hard deadline at the end, so I paid for rapid shipping from one company. They got back to me the next day by email, saying "you're in California, too, so we were able to get you two-day shipping by ground: there's no need to pay for the premium option. How do you want the refund?" You better believe I ordered the rest of the parts I needed from them, and (when I need something else, next time) they'll be the first place I'll look, and probably where I buy, even if I might be able to save $10 buying something somewhere else. It was a small, unexpected thing, and it's the best marketing dollars they'll ever "spend" to win my custom.
- ProllyInfamous 2y ago
  I just purchased a Toyota and it was comforting when the US dealership sent me a check for ~$15 "because your state taxes didn't end up costing as much as we had anticipated." >they'll be the first place I'll look, and probably where I buy, even if I might be able to save $10 buying something somewhere else. Absolutely, but in my experience on the pricing level of automobiles $xx,xxx...
noashavit 2y ago
All those small things - yes including the box - add up to the brand perception. It is why we are willing to pay a higher price, because we are aware of the value we know we will get from a brand the sweats the small things.

177 points by jger15 2y ago

Good customer experience matters. People remember how they were treated and they will be more loyal to a company that goes the extra mile to give them what they need. Years ago when I worked at Amazon, leaders made customer experience a priority and empowered us to do what was needed to ensure a good customer experience even if would cost the company more. I am not sure if things are the same there now, but it taught me a lot about how a company's relationship with its customers matters for the company's long-term growth and customer loyalty. The enshittification trends we see today are the opposite. Companies are all to happy to make quick profits by choosing to put what is best for the company ahead of the customer experience. Customer data is sold and shared. Ads are cramed into every possible space. Customers are opted in to onerous legal agreements and forced arbitration. Dark patterns abound. Customers notice. Customers remember. And when the circumstances are right they will drop such companies and watch them burn with pleasure. The golden rule still holds and no company is "too big to fail".

Manfred 2y ago
All these things matter when you try to build an enduring company instead of the embrace, squeeze, and run strategy. I don't think that happens a lot any more, if we are lucky one company might keep its course for 20 years and then it gets sold or the founder moves on.
Swizec 2y ago
I once took a hard look at our user surveys. As a software engineer I’m not really expected to care. All our happiest customers talked about the service experience. All our grumpiest customers talk about the service experience. None of our users gave two shits about the software. All they cared about was did we solve their problem on that day when they needed us. That’s when I realized we’re a software-enabled service company. It changed how I prioritize things.
- creer 2y ago
  Funny you mention surveys! Businesses have been sending me surveys which are far worse than the service experience was itself. This is not a good move: the service was fine but the survey itself was a truly bad experience both in broad lines and detail. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
wrs 2y ago
I just had an Amazon package stolen from my porch with $500 of items in it that I needed quickly. I reordered everything for delivery next day, and started a chat in the app. The only thing they wanted to know was if I wanted the refund on my credit card or as a gift balance. (I’ve been an Amazon customer since 1997, so that might factor in.) But on the other hand, the quality of the actual product catalog is now abysmal. Way too many clones of Ali Express items with literally random brand names and scam listings. I still sort of trust “Sold by Amazon” listings, but they’re making it harder to filter on that. So in this area the accounting department is clearly outranking the customer experience department.
- creer 2y ago
  Re. product quality: And yet the service still makes a difference - or the entire difference perhaps. Recently two items were botched by Aliexpress for me. Talking to the vendors, the shippers and then Aliexpress was absurdly horrible. These were not expensive products but all of them fought every step of the way to deliver the shittiest experience possible (irrelevant of the products themselves). And 6 months later I still don't have functional parts. It was entirely up to Aliexpress to lose my business and they did with gusto. Amazon probably sells the same item, just for more money, but they were reinforced as the right balance of price and assurance that I will end up with the item reasonably fast and low-hassle.

ashnehete 2y ago

Tangential, but the line saying: "smiles are always free" reminds me of the often overlooked cost of emotional labour performed especially by the service industry. We should also acknowledge this small thing.

jareklupinski 2y ago
> "smiles are always free" you're not wrong; nothing is free: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_mask_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_mask_syndrome > ...subjects develop depression and physical illness as a result of prolonged, unnatural smiling.
pizzafeelsright 2y ago
I am so far removed from this now that it feels foreign to me. In my house we must have a good attitude or be silent. It's fine to be angry or sad, just no crying or whining. Every request for a hug must be met with a hug. I expect the emotional exercise to help workout the management of emotions and adjusting of attitude.
- lukevp 2y ago
  Your house sounds a little toxic. I couldn’t tell in your post if you were positive or negative toward this, but it sounds like a denial of human emotion. Why would anyone ban crying? Sounds like the “turn it off” approach from the Book of Mormon.
  - lelanthran 2y ago
    > Sounds like the “turn it off” approach from the Book of Mormon. I'm not familiar with that. What is it?
    - aspenmayer 2y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Mormon_(musical) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Mormon_(musical) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_6iKKoKyBM&list=OLAK5uy_lKHGV8q5SQ2HhnELmuOdf462IITfXRVDY&index=5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_6iKKoKyBM&list=OLAK5uy_lKH... https://genius.com/Original-broadway-cast-of-the-book-of-mormon-turn-it-off-lyrics https://genius.com/Original-broadway-cast-of-the-book-of-mor... https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1686764,1686764 https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1686764,1686764 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_suppression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_suppression

jvans 2y ago

small things don't show up on p&l reports or a/b tests so the bean counters ignore them. But they have an outsized impact on long term success and people who are really great at what they do sweat the small stuff regardless of the numbers

didgetmaster 2y ago

I recently moved and wanted the post office to forward my mail. I could fill out the physical card or I could go online and fill out a form and pay a $1.10 fee for verification. The fee was small enough that I thought it was worth saving the hassle. As I write this, the other browser tab for the post office web site is still displaying the 'loading' window with no end in sight after I entered all my info. I guess it is back to doing it the hard way. IT IS the small things...

lukevp 2y ago

This is something Apple does amazingly well. The first touch point on a new Apple product is the box, and they use high end, thick cardboard that’s got a great finish. When you go to open the box, the interface between the bottom and top halves is so perfectly fitted that there’s a weightiness to removing the lid, like it has a seal. It probably costs barely anything to make the box better like that, but every time I buy an Apple product I notice it, and I feel like they care about the small things. I used to be anti-Apple. I used Android or Windows Phone and used Windows or Linux on PC. I thought the extra cost of Apple was a scam. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate a company that doesn’t BS me and waste my time. Windows has ads and malware built into the OS. They charge you for OS upgrades. macOS is just free and ad-free. The laptop hardware doesn’t cut corners. Yes, it’s expensive, but everyone knows of its quality. in 5 years it still has value. Try and sell a 5 year old windows laptop. This extends to all their other products and services. I pay more to not be the product, and to have privacy. I’ll make that deal all day.

wrs 2y ago
“It’s the small things” has driven Apple design for decades. And it’s a cultural thing, not just the “design department”. I remember back in the mid-90s when I left Apple to work at Microsoft and realized how rare it is to have software developers who view everything through the lens of the end user experience, even if they’re working on the file system or the boot sequence. Random example: One of the first things I asked when I got there was “why, when you turn on a Windows PC, does it start your user experience by filling the screen with scary gibberish?” That got fixed, but it took many years, partially because of all the coordination needed in the PC ecosystem to do anything, but mostly because nobody really cared all that much.
- ryandrake 2y ago
  That ingrained cultural attention to detail is probably the only thing I miss about working there. Too many other tech companies I've worked at just don't care about things they consider "edge cases". Make the "key customer journey" (in other words the happy-path) work and you're done. Is "making it beautiful" in the contract? No? Then don't work on it! Oh, the software doesn't work in landscape mode? P3 bug, we'll fix it later--just ship ship ship. Cheap out and make the casing plastic instead of metal so you can save $0.30 on each device. KPIs! OKRs! metrics! That's all the rest of the industry runs on.

creeble 2y ago

I too have been a State Farm customer for over 30 years, and my proof of insurance cards come with perforations. I too would notice and care if they did not. Maybe he’s on paperless?

marcosdumay 2y ago

Management by key process indicators is such a surreal thing. Any sane human would notice that it's pointless to go out of your way to make a completely optional interaction with your customers and do it so badly that the customer will leave unsatisfied. The only way you get that is by building a clearly stupid AI, and subjecting people to its whims. What is a management best practice, so yeah, let's do it.

ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago

I do this with UI. In fact, I'm working on a backend dashboard app, right now. Only two of us (nerdy) types will ever use it (maybe more, if things take off, but it's not a priority). I will be spending at least three days, polishing up a "thermometer" UI, for the date ranges. The main public app, itself, is a big aggregation of "small things," like custom transition animations, haptics, font choices, etc. The designer was quite adamant about "small things," often complaining about half-pixel (!) offsets. That's one of the reasons I write native, and also one of the reasons that I'm using UIKit/AutoLayout, because they let me do anything I want (but I don't really like AutoLayout -I'm just good with it). People seem to like it.

gumby 2y ago

There are longstanding lessons in this point that predate software. The US car companies slid in the 60s and 70s by incrementally cutting “irrelevant” costs, like not painting under the seats, cheaper knobs, and the like. Each of these changes was imperceptible but their sum was noticeable. Ironically their own European and especially Japanese competition went the other way: started cheap (so people expected cheap knobs) and then incrementally moved upmarket (“Wow, this cheap car is nicer than I had expected” -> premium market). Right now the software and especially SaaS worlds seem stuck in their own 1970s Detroit era. Dangerous crap,but with little alternative. I don’t see any “Japanese manufacturers” (to extend the analogy) on the horizon.

euroderf 2y ago
So if American car companies were trying the "boiling frog" effect, what is the name for its opposite that Japanese car companies were trying ?
- samatman 2y ago
  The word is 'kaizen'.

eviks 2y ago

If small things mattered, you wouldn't have so many of them neglected. "(And smiles they are free." Forced service smiles aren't free, but a result of continuous spend on training the service personnel

barnabee 2y ago
> If small things mattered, you wouldn't have so many of them neglected. People are often not good understanding and deciding what matters, groups of people are generally even worse. It's why aircraft have checklists and companies like Apple have certain things so ingrained in their culture.

dingosity 2y ago

Yes and no. You have to do the big things right before you can do the small things right. For instance, every flight I've taken on United in the past 5 years (about 10 or so) has been delayed by a mechanical or scheduling issue. Two of them were delayed to the point where I missed a connection. I do not fly United anymore. I my mind (and it's likely largely affected by which airports I frequently fly into) it's Delta, American and Alaska competing for my business. Even though I fly to/through DFW frequently, I try to avoid American because of how enshittified their frequent flyer program has become. How the mighty have fallen. It is a little thing (the enshittified frequent flyer program), but it keeps me from seriously considering flying American unless there's no alternative. So yes... small things matter (American) but only because big things have already eliminated potential service providers (United.)

samatman 2y ago
> You have to do the big things right before you can do the small things right. Doing the small things right is how the big things get done right. Attention to detail is a culture, and it's as applicable to turning planes around on time as it is to giving premium customers a premium experience, and ordinary customers a surprisingly nice experience.
happypumpkin 2y ago
For me Delta has been the one that is garbage lately. It used to be my favorite but the last five flights have all had something go wrong. When I requested proof of delay for travel insurance it took them ages to send it over. Tbf though a lot of the issues might just be related to their hub being in Atlanta. I suppose it is hard to make such a gigantic airport efficient but wow do I hate Atlanta layovers (and being stuck there overnight when something goes wrong). Only one I've never had issues with is Alaska but Southwest is usually good, plus their boarding procedure is by far the most organized. Seriously, why do so many airlines just make it a mad-dash by group?

ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago

I worked for almost 27 years, for a company that is renowned for "small things." Their stuff costs a lot more than most, but thousands of customers thought they were worth the premium, and built their entire careers around that equipment. I think they ran into trouble, when they started selling huge numbers of cheaper items. They made a lot of money, but their brand lost its sheen. I'm hoping that they are re-establishing their original baseline. It did teach me to take this stuff seriously, though. It's not a matter of process; it's a matter of culture, and that is something that needs to be developed organically.

sanderjd 2y ago
I think this is sort of a "barbell effect" thing. Both models can work very well, but you can't really do both, you have to pick your approach and commit to it. This reminds me of something I realized fairly late (maybe embarrassingly so) into my career. For the longest time, I had all these opinions about how software should be made, that is, universally, and would often feel very frustrated and discontented because nobody seemed to want to do things the right way. But then I finally realized at some point that what was really going on was that different projects can be very different, and different approaches make more sense for different things. To use extreme examples, a single instance of a typical website-with-some-behavior vs. the control systems for a spacecraft. It's perfectly fine to build that website in a blitz using a CMS or framework with bog standard components and limited testing. But all you're going to manage with that same approach in the latter case is to crash your spacecraft. But I also realized that where I was going wrong was in trying to impose my desires onto whatever project I happened to be working on, rather than imposing them onto my choice of what to work on. So I started thinking harder about what kinds of things I wanted to do, and being more deliberate in finding those projects, and convincing people to bring me onto them. (With somewhat mixed success of course... career development is hard enough when just going with the flow, let alone adding on conditions...) To bring it back on topic, the analogy I'm drawing is: If you really want to do formal verification in all your projects, you shouldn't work on websites! And if you really want to pay attention to all the small little niceties, you shouldn't build a business with tight margins that are made up in volume!

BWStearns 2y ago

It reminds me of that shields down article[0] but for your customers. Maybe it’s just me but if there are enough little interactions with a vendor that go poorly because of the counterparty clearly not giving a shit they end up in a kind of dead-to-me zone. I’ll still be polite and all but the second an alternative is there I’m gone. Alternatively there are companies that are always pleasant to interact with. Avemco is an insurance company I use and any time I have a question for them they either have the answer or go find it immediately. When it’s time to renew they proactively check if I’m eligible for better rates. even if someone came in with a quote at a 30% premium discount I’d probably not hear them out because I just don’t expect such service elsewhere. It’s sad that these nice experiences get optimized away, I honestly think people would be nicer to each other if it didn’t constantly feel like everyone was constantly racing to the bottom. 0: https://randsinrepose.com/archives/shields-down/ https://randsinrepose.com/archives/shields-down/

Nevermark 2y ago

> Imagine if you were a cable company or publisher and re-allocate the “stop them from unsubscribing” budget where you slash prices, increase channels in a bundle or enhance broadband speeds to people who are quitting, to instead reward the most loyal customers by going to them and cutting their fees and/or upgrading their services to simply say thank you. Imagine if they readily cancelled you, and if you were a long time customer, let you know they were either going to refund your last months bill, or gave you an additional free month, whichever would help you the most as you moved on? I know I wouldn't ever forget that. Precisely because they had no reason to do it than to value helping me, current customer or not. And how little would that month's service cost them? An imperceptible marginal cost.

ziofill 2y ago

After using my first macbook for about 8 years (bought in 2005), I went to the Apple Store in Glasgow for a new battery and they just gifted it to me. I asked them why and they replied “It’s a random act of kindness”. Well, it did tattoo in my memory.

eszed 2y ago

I recently ordered some parts for my car. It was a complex schedule of repairs between my main mechanic, the tire shop, some of my own work, and another guy - and with a hard deadline at the end, so I paid for rapid shipping from one company. They got back to me the next day by email, saying "you're in California, too, so we were able to get you two-day shipping by ground: there's no need to pay for the premium option. How do you want the refund?" You better believe I ordered the rest of the parts I needed from them, and (when I need something else, next time) they'll be the first place I'll look, and probably where I buy, even if I might be able to save $10 buying something somewhere else. It was a small, unexpected thing, and it's the best marketing dollars they'll ever "spend" to win my custom.

ProllyInfamous 2y ago
I just purchased a Toyota and it was comforting when the US dealership sent me a check for ~$15 "because your state taxes didn't end up costing as much as we had anticipated." >they'll be the first place I'll look, and probably where I buy, even if I might be able to save $10 buying something somewhere else. Absolutely, but in my experience on the pricing level of automobiles $xx,xxx...

noashavit 2y ago

All those small things - yes including the box - add up to the brand perception. It is why we are willing to pay a higher price, because we are aware of the value we know we will get from a brand the sweats the small things.