You’d be surprised what makes a difference to people…
There was a Yale study done in 2008 where actors went up to multiple people, all acting exactly the same way. They had their head pointed down to avoid eye contact, with a coffee cup in one hand, and they reached out that coffee saying the sentence “could you hold this for me please”. No eye contact meant people had to take the cup, they held it for 15 seconds, then took it back.
A little later in that day, the random people were asked a number of questions, one of which was “how did that person come across?”. 50% of the actors had an iced coffee, and 50% of them had a hot cup.
Now, the interesting bit…
81% of those who held the cold cup said the actor was “cold and short mannered”, while 80% of those that held the hot cup said the actor was “warm and welcoming”.
The only difference was the temperature of the cup…
We will always underestimate the impact of psychology when people are buying from us. The mood they are in, the words we use, the time between contact. Everything makes a difference, and ultimately you will never know what would constitute perfection. Perfection is impossible.
You will never know what small things make a difference. Signage, uniforms, logos; they all make a difference. Hell, someone could be put off by there not being a push/pull sign on a door entering your premises!
But what I can guarantee you is that if you get all those small things right, they will make a difference, whether you know it is them or not.