Think of your customers first - Hint: Stickers are not the answer

One of the things that I feel very strongly about is doing what’s right for the customer, and only doing things that a customer would want.

If you’re not doing that, then what are you doing - other than wasting your own time, wasting your customers time, and endangering a relationship.

That said, let’s take a look at this example of doing things that doesn’t make sense.

I got a new Toshiba M200 tablet as a replacement for another M200 recently. Take a look at the wrist rest out of the box:

Look how many useless stickers there are. Cluttering the wrist rest. Making the surface uncomfortable. Ruining the look.

Let’s look at the left side first:

I know it’s an awful picture, but there are 3 stickers on this side: The nVidia sticker, the Wacom sticker, and the energy star sticker.

Why? What value does this add to my life?

What’s really sad here is that the Wacom sticker wasn’t even on the old M200 that I got a few months back. I guess this sticker is a new feature!

Let’s now look at the right side:

So on this side I have a giant ad for more accessories (because the one in the box wasn’t enough?), a sticker letting me know I’m using Windows and a sticker letting me know that it has Intel Centrino.

Oh good! I need a daily reminder that this is Tablet PC is using Intel Centrino with Windows - I might wake up one day and think that it is using a MIPS processor and IRIX! Phew! Now I can focus on my work. And, when I need inspiration, I can look at the accessories that I can buy for this Tablet.

Seriously, why did they waste their resources putting these stickers on, and waste my time by forcing me to spend 15 minutes removing them? Probably because of marketing kick backs - but is that the right thing for your customer?

Let’s look at a mildly successful product - Apple’s iPod. Does it come with any stickers on it promoting Dolby AAC? That it works with iTunes?

Please - think of your customers first.

[One thing that I'm super proud about with respect to the product I now work on is that our Toolbar enables you to select other search engines! Not just MSN. You could make Wikipedia or IMDB your default search engine. And people do change it - like Mark Jen. It might seem like a strange move, but really - this toolbar is about helping you get things done. It's about serving you, the customer.]