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I’m a big believer in the concept of getting something up and running and then fine-tuning as time goes on. It’s like building a skeleton and throwing flesh and skin over it. Generally, details come second.

But if you really want to get on the good side of a customer (and you do, of course) then you need to pay particular attention to the details right upfront. If you’re running a business or managing a project you can make little adjustments to better serve the stakeholder, who is normally a customer.

Pretend you’re a customer and ask yourself: “what would I want?” When we developed 2Large2Email our overriding goal was to make sending large files as easy as possible. To do that we designed the whole product from the perspective of my mother. I would stop, re-evaluate and adjust what we were doing so the end product turned out to be something that wasn’t just easy to use, it was a pleasurable experience. We delivered a great alternative to emailing big files.

Most of the time the changes were just small things, like changing words and terms from geek speak into more mainstream verbage. It wasn’t difficult to do, and it didn’t take long. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to sometimes ask your customers what they want too. About once a month I would show my mother 2Large2Email and she would use the beta and give feedback. It was because of her the Show Me How videos have developed.

Another important factor when delivering a product and service designed around the customer is to develop an “everyone matters” approach. We’re only a small company and we like to think we’re very different to the large banks and telcos who treat their customers with disdain. We value each and every customer and follow-up problems and cancelations. It’s important for us because an individual customer is a greater percentage of our overall business than the customer of a bank is. I don’t believe they should, but maybe the larger companies think they can afford to ignore/lose one customer.

Finally, as you fine-tune your approach to delivering the little things, just remember that customers value detail. If the little things aren’t right the customers won’t be happy and they will shop elsewhere.