Below is an Autogenerated Transcript

We got a challenge here… now this ..you know I asked the question, Which is the most important- Product, Delivery Systems or Mindset?

I was wrestling with it the other day ..I thought to myself… imagine if somebody said “Oh Mr. Kaufman, you want to get a new computer?  We can deliver it for you tomorrow and install it, no problem” and the guy is really nice, very pleasant, friendly manner on the phone, I like talking with him, he comes, installs it,  the computer doesn’t work.

Not gonna work out, is it? 

The product’s important. 

Well on the other hand imagine he says “Mr. Kaufman we have the latest, the greatest, the state-of-the-art product” and he’s a nice fellow but… “let’s see… we can’t deliver for about six months, is that alright?” I say Uh no, it’s not” the delivery is important, and if somebody offered you a leading-edge state-of-the-art computer and they could deliver it tomorrow but the way they were when you talk to them was really like a jerk, would you buy?

No way.

The mindset is important.

In some cases though the mindset is more important than the product and the delivery, in some cases if your mindset is right, if the way you service people is right, you can even overcome temporary problems with the product or the delivery. Some of you are going “Yes I mean.. I’m not sure”

let me give you a story and put you in the seat, let’s say you want to go out on a date and you want to take somebody really special means a lot to you you know maybe you’re going to pop the big question that night huh? So you choose to go to the most expensive french restaurant in town, it’s the one you all heard of, you know it’s expensive like crazy but never mind it’s a special night, so you tell everybody you work with, now I’m going to that restaurant you go to that restaurant, you make your reservation, you’ve got your date on your arm, you go walking onto that it looks gorgeous, the ambience is impeccable. 

They’ve got the nice music playing, when you come in, you sit down to give you the menu it’s so expensive, it’s one of those places where only the guys get the menu with the prices… but never mind you know the food’s finally comes, it’s fabulous, it’s delicious, the presentation is gorgeous but all night long the waiter is a real pain in the neck, I mean he’s not really there when you find yourself going like this and when he finally comes over you know spends a little too much time ogling your date and makes you feel a little you know less than him and puts himself on top rather than you.

Now when that dinner is over you’re gonna finally go back to work the next day people are gonna say how was the dinner what are you gonna say? Lousy. “Oh what happened?” The waiter was a jerk. 

Would you go back to that restaurant again? If a friend of yours says “should I go to that restaurant” would you recommend it ? Of course not!

Poor service can overwhelm outstanding product and delivery.

On the other hand, excellent service could compensate.. let’s say a new sandwich shop opens up near your office just a little delicatessen you’ve heard about. It’s time, you go down, you walk in whoa! It’s colorful, it’s bright, the people are all friendly. 

They’re bouncing around it’s like the Giordano’s of sandwich shops and you sit down and you’re very friendly with the waiter in your order and you order the tuna fish salad sandwich and you really you know you enjoy the whole ambiance of the meal and the people but the sandwich is not so hot. 

Once you go back to the office somebody says “Hey how’s the new sandwich shop?”  What are you going to say?  “Oh it’s great but don’t have the tuna salad sandwich” Would you yourself go back?  Sure you would.

Would you even perhaps give a recommendation to the people at the sandwich shop that they ought to improve their sandwich but the French restaurant they’ll never see you again.