Customers shoes

It's a big job organising a city marathon and the Edinburgh marathon is by and large well organised.

But when I dropped my daughter off to catch the bus to her relay stage I was given a classic example of not thinking about the customer. The marathon had lots of buses going to the different changeover points for the relay and at different times. As a runner (customer) you wanted to know quickly which bus to get on. What did they have on the bus's display? Was it 'Stage 1' or Stage 2'? No, it was 'Contract'!

Now it wasn't that big a deal. You just needed to ask one of the drivers or stewards which bus to take.

But if someone had just put themselves in a customers shoes for a second they could have easily made the whole experience easier and smoother.

And so it is with our businesses. If we just paid more attention to detail and put ourselves in our customers shoes more often, everyone would benefit.