Warm Bread Is Not Toast

I didn’t have a blog post ready for today, so I’m glad that my hotel room service served me one up. I’d ordered poached eggs, grapefruit juice, decaf coffee, and some wheat toast. What arrived was poached eggs, grapefruit juice, decaf coffee, and some warm wheat bread.

Warm bread is not toast.

Warm Bread Is Not Toast

There’s something to think about in this for business. Quite often, we accidentally fall into the “good enough” and “close enough” categories of serving our customers and clients. I have recently bought a few information marketing products where they were telling me something as if it were valuable, and really, they were telling me really basic and common stuff that they’d already published on their website, just slightly warmed over. Sending me warm bread when I’ve ordered toast isn’t going to keep me as a fan.

Toast is making sure there’s a “satisfying crunch” to your products and services. Toast is giving me something to lift up the rest of my business breakfast and enjoy as a mix. Toast is making sure that I don’t even NOTICE that it’s toast, except for that one moment where I shake my head and say “mmmmm” loudly while going on with whatever else I’m doing. (Toast is never intrusive, I mean to say.)

Just To Be Clear

I don’t really care that the room service delivered me warm bread. It’s just a great way to illustrate a point. Don’t get lost on the analogy. Focus on what it means to your business to serve up toast instead of warm bread. The toast? It was just a great blog topic to start me writing.

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Anonymous

I just love the basic premise, and it’s conciseness. I think people forget to “experience” their product anew. It’s like a bartender that never tastes their drink (a lot of them), the recipe can slide if they just listen to certain criteria like “color” or what they’re favorite customers say.
Anonymous

What is interesting, if expecting toast, warm nearly-toasted bread is almost WORSE than a slice of room temp bread. It means they knew what you wanted but didn’t care enough to give it to you.
http://productivehobbies.blogspot.com/ Ibrahim Kamrul Shafin

Again a very interesting post to read!
http://www.mikemccready.ca/blog/ Mike McCready

I completely agree, but I also think the opposite could be said.

Sometimes we may be too focused on delivering perfection that our actions freeze – “paralysis by analysis”

I remember hearing a quote once, that I have applied in some cases:

“Generally correct, not specifically wrong.”
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My mentor is currently kicking my behind to get things out more quickly and stop being a perfectionist. Maybe it isn’t a matter of taking extra time to get it right, but adjusting your aim to hit the nail on the head consistently.
http://www.freightbrokering.info Freight Brokering

My mentor is currently kicking my behind to get things out more quickly and stop being a perfectionist. Maybe it isn’t a matter of taking extra time to get it right, but adjusting your aim to hit the nail on the head consistently.
http://www.freightbrokering.info Freight Brokering

My mentor is currently kicking my behind to get things out more quickly and stop being a perfectionist. Maybe it isn’t a matter of taking extra time to get it right, but adjusting your aim to hit the nail on the head consistently.
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http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SUN4FBRFE3ZBC4D7H6YOFRIKKY Heidi Walker

lol this seems to be a stretch for content at least it did at first i’m glad to see you pull it out in the end for a good and important point though!
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But why?
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I like the analogy. Great post.
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like it tooooooooooooooooooo
Taylor Richardson

I am glad I found this post. This is something that many businesses still struggle with today. Many people are more concerned with getting the product out or doing the bare minimum to check something off a list, but what truly creates a relationship is going beyond the minimum standard. What a company promises through any means of communication should always be met.

“Toast is making sure that I don’t even notice that it is toast, except for that one moment where I shake my head and say mmm loudly while going on with whatever else I’m doing.” This is a great quote that I feel many business should take to heart. Providing a service or product should be facilitated by the company in whatever means best suits the circumstance, but it should be seamlessly done so that the customer is not burdened.

True quality is what we need to strive for not just getting by.

Thanks for the inspiration.