I recently posted an article, Marketing Non-Essentials, on how it is those little things, the critical non-essentials that can make a difference to your marketing or perception of your brand. So when I went on holiday with my family last week to the Lincolnshire coast, I saw first hand how a few small things can make a big difference.

We had rented a bungalow for a week, which was only 1 minute from the beach, ideal for my two daughters and a real bonus for me. I grew up in a seaside town and miss the sound of the sea and the thought of having access to long beach walks now I live in a city, was very tempting.  Anyway, we had great hopes of our holiday home, and made our way down to Lincolnshire.

When we got there, the first thing I noticed was the front door into the property was dirty, it was covered in cobwebs and needed a good clean, which put me off a little. Then when we entered the property, there was a definite dog smell, mixed with bleach from the kitchen where the floor had been cleaned. The kitchen was OK,  if a little tired looking, however the 1970’s green bathroom although clean had seen better days, it had limescale on the tiles and the toilet roll holder was held together with Sellotape and kept falling apart. The bedrooms were OK but there was damp on the walls, which didn’t really affect us as it was the Summer, but didn’t look so great. The showers were old electric ones that didn’t really wet you at all, and the pressure was so low on the hot water that it took an age to fill the sink just to wash up.

If I am honest, I was a little disappointed; yes the location was great, but it seemed a shame that the owners hadn’t made an effort to give the place a spruce up with an inexpensive new bathroom suit, get the damp sorted and give the place a lick of paint. It wouldn’t have cost much and would have made a much better impression. In addition, we had to bring our own bed linen, which meant that we had to make the beds up on arrival and also take home a lot of washing with us.

In contrast, we went away earlier in the year to the Yorkshire Coast and stayed in a holiday cottage, which actually cost less money. As soon as we opened the door, there was a lovely lavender smell, and we could see some fresh flowers on the kitchen counter. The place was spotless, with a new kitchen and all the the beds had been made up and were ready to use. Then as we got further into the kitchen we saw a bottle of wine, some teabags, coffee, luxury biscuits and a small note. It welcomed us to the cottage, told us that there was some milk in the fridge and hoped that we had a good stay and there was a thanks for booking from both the owners.

Which property do you think we would go back to?

It is the same with businesses, some promise a lot but don’t always deliver the goods and some take care of the smallest detail and make you feel like a welcomed customer. So just make sure you take care of those critical non-essentials that Paddi Lund talks about, I think that they can make a big difference to the perception of your brand.