How do your customers see your business?

I have to admit, I don’t read a lot of blogs. There are less than 10 I read on a regular basis, in addition to my colleagues’ blogs here at AllBusiness.com. But one blog I watch regularly is written by Guy Kawasaki. I like Guy’s blog partly because you never know what he’s going to write about.

For example, earlier this year, Guy wrote about his trip to Minnesota (which he calls his new adopted state). Since I’m from Minnesota this caught my attention.

What is memorable about his post though, is that he writes about a grocery store he visited while here in MN. The store was Byerly’s, which is our local chain of high-end grocery stores. It’s smaller than the big-box stores and more expensive. But it provides a different experience than the others do.

That experience moved Guy to write about (and take pictures of) the Byerly’s store he visited.

On one level this is endearing.

Here is a store I shop at every week and I think nothing of it. Being a marketing guy, I do notice and appreciate that Byerly’s offers me a different experience than Cub, Rainbow or the other larger stores. But I have rarely been moved to write about it and I’ve never taken pictures of the store.

So, to have a nationally known, well-traveled, best-selling business guru like Guy Kawasaki fawn over this store is pleasantly surprising. And it makes him seem more down to earth and more (no pun intended) “guy-next-door-ish” than you might assume, given his accomplishments.

On another level this provides a good lesson for all of us:

We all see things differently.

I take Byerly’s for granted while Guy Kawasaki is thrilled enough to write about it. For me it’s the norm. For him it’s something different and exciting and worth sharing.

And he’s from the West Coast!

It’s easy for us to assume our world and our view of it is the same as everyone else’s. But it’s not. Everyone else in the world has their view filtered by their experiences, their knowledge and their place. No two perspectives are exactly the same.

As we grow our organizations, we need to understand what our customers and employees want from us. We need to discover how we can help them and how we can do that better than anyone else. We need to get good at seeing the world from where other people stand.

Find ways to see the world, and your business from other people’s point of view. It’s not easy but it can be valuable.

If we do this well we’ll be much more skilled at helping our customers and employees get what they want. And we’ll find our ability to grow our businesses will skyrocket.

Other articles you might like:

• Let Them Play With Your “Pets”
• Customer Service Carnivale
• Ace Hardware aces out Home Depot in customer service survey
• The new old rules of engagement
• Top 10 customer service blogs