There has been a fair amount of hype in the media, lately, about technology. Apple recently released the ipad, and both Verizon and Apple are going to be unleashing new 4g iphones on the market soon. Kia has reintroduced push-button car starters and Windows 7 is advertising in full-force. New models and upgrades of all kinds are constantly rolling out.
I was reflecting on some of the new products, and I was reminded of when I took my grandfather to the Detroit Auto Show a number of years ago. Having worked for General Motors as a photographer, he was very excited to attend. We looked at that years' new cars, concept vehicles, and all of the displays. Some of the exhibits even allowed you to sit in the cars to check them out from the inside. My grandfather and I climbed into an $80,000+ Jaguar V-12 sports coupe. I remember the comfortable leather seats, the beautiful design, the classic-looking wooden dashboard replete with chrome dials and gauges, the advanced stereo system... In short, I was very impressed. My grandfather, however, loudly announced that the car was "crap." "Where are the cupholders?" he asked me. Looking around, I noticed he was right- there were no cupholders. In this gorgeous, sleek marvel of modern engineering, there was no place to set a mug of coffee. To my grandfather, that oversight reduced the entire luxury vehicle- a car I could only dream of driving- to "crap."
Really, though, it's an important lesson about attention to detail, not just in technology, but in all aspects of work. A product or service is essentially meaningless to clients if it doesn't meet their basic needs. The engineers who designed that Jaguar obviously cared about making it fast and having it look nice. But when they thought about driving it, they didn't think about using it. That was the message I got that day- to focus not on what's important to me, but what's important to my customers.
At Obbee, we're focused on sales leads. We provide prospect lists for realtors, mortgage brokers, insurance agents and debt settlement & loan modification consultants. With the power of the internet, we can even match up clients with sales professionals in real time. It may not be fancy, but my grandfather wouldn't call it "crap." :)
- Dave
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