The other day I was walking along a footpath and saw the shortcut in the picture. This had been created by people walking from a nearby car park to the path. Whilst a little annoying that people had decided to make this unofficial path, because they were not prepared to walk the long way round, it got me thinking. The path did go in a loop and the new path was the shortest distance. And whilst the proper surfaced path only increased the distance walked by a small amount it was clearly sufficient to be enough to make a difference. You may also see in the picture that the people who cut the grass had the insights to cut the area to the sides of the new path. This made the route clearer to walk on even though it was not the ‘official’ path.
I was interested to see that no signs had been erected directing people to the ‘correct’ route. Nor a small barrier or fence placed to discourage people – in fact quite the reverse.
How often have we been somewhere where there is every attempt to dissuade customers from doing things? You know the sort – ‘no cheques accepted here’, ‘no mobile phones’, ‘do not walk on the grass’, ‘please keep to the foot path’.
This got me thinking about how we treat our customers or clients – are we telling them what we don’t what them to do, signs screaming out at the behaviours we don’t want. Rather than noticing what they want….and then responding to thier wishes in a positive way.
It also reminded me of the time I was in a restaurant in France when my guest requested fresh fruit for dessert – the waitress was very brusque saying that there was none on the menu. The desserts on the menu were all complex creations but far too rich. When the chef was eventually asked a wonderful fresh fruit selection was prepared. We were being told what we could not have rather than considering a customer’s request that could be met – and the teamwork to create a result was not high for the waitress. I would add that the request was in good French and polite.
- So have you anything that you try and make the customer do when they have indicated that they would prefer to do something differently?
- Are you clearing a path to allow a customer free passage to your products and services?
- Does their shortcut highlight something that you could do differently, or something additional you could offer?
Perhaps it is worth looking at your business with the eyes of a customer once in a while and see what routes you could shorten – what insights you could gain!
Perhaps each could be a shortcut to a better customer relationship rather than a sign warning them off.
My best wishes,
Peter
