Please don’t be offended by the photos below and, yes, they are of urinals in two different Qantas men’s rooms, one in Sydney and the other in Melbourne.

As you can see, both are out of order but the way of notifying it is totally different. One has a polite message, suitably displayed and looking good. The other is a very amateurish attempt at preventing its use.

Now considering that both examples come from Qantas men’s rooms and that Qantas is well known for its systems that enable it to maintain near perfect flying standards and deliver fantastic service I was somewhat taken aback by this lapse in their maintenance system.

Surely, Qantas would have maintenance systems that are common throughout their network for a simple problem like a non-functioning urinal.

Now please forgive me for picking on Qantas because, as far as I’m concerned, they are generally impeccable in everything they do and this is obviously an unfortunate lapse.

But it does serve to remind each of us that we need to be ever vigilant in the day-to-day things that we do, or don’t do, because a lapse can reflect badly upon us.

And generally they aren’t major breaches or problems but rather small things that go wrong and convey an unfortunate impression. It may be something that wouldn’t worry a regular client, customer or patient who knows how good we are but, on the other hand, it could be the first impression someone dealing with our business for the first time may get.

And, as they say, ‘You never get a second chance at a first impression’.

 
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