I remember reading a book some time back called Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. In fact, they have a series of Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff books now, almost like the ‘For Dummies’ series of books.

The book was very insightful but I have been thinking lately of its applicability to us in the Customer service world. Maybe this book is more geared towards those that are customers and not those that serve customers?

The more I thought about it, the more I relazed that what the title of the book says is the opposite of what I preach… to some degree. In fact, I think we that serve our customers need to sweat the small stuff!

Of course I’m not advocating that we need to stress about everything. Or for that matter, stress at all. What I am talking about though is the idea of taking care of the small details. It’s the details that shape the customer experience and its the details that we have ultimate control over.

If I were to write a second edition to Mr. Carlson’s book, I would call it something like “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff but Sweat the Details Before your Customer Does”.