It’s good to get the basics done, when preparing for anything. However, if you don’t pay attention to detail your mistakes can be highly visible.
Whats the problem?
Take this yellow sign, it actually does it’s job. It solved an issue of people turning too early due to the vagaries of post code centering in satellite navigation systems. However, with a less cursory look you see that the “Nat” should be a “Nav”. What does that mistake make you think of the training centre in question? Has it, even ever so slightly, made you think “Well if they can’t get that right…”?
A similar perspective was popularised by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr., dubbed the Coffee Stain Theory:
You bought an airline ticket from their great website. You go to the airport, sail through security and encounter courteous staff at the gate. The plane boards efficiently and takes off smoothly and on time. Your impression of this airline is fantastic. Then you lower your tray table. Right in the middle is a nasty, dirty coffee ring stain. You’ve got to get someone to clean it up, but it calls into question the cleanliness of the rest of the plane, and even how well the engines are inspected and maintained! Your impression of the airline so carefully cultivated to this point is dashed.
Paraphrased from In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies
Opinions of organisations are drawn from the simplest of things; a spelling mistake, a dirty mark or a process that doesn’t secure a customers data appropriately. All these things can be avoided, prevented and fixed – the question is, will you find it or will your customer? Don’t let your customers, competitors or regulators find your data protection shortfalls, find them yourself with Gydeline.
By the way – the sign is correct now and it wasn’t the Training Centre that put it up!
