Note: Lessons from The Overlook is a periodic update on lessons learned from owning a vacation rental property in the Southern California mountain town of Idyllwild. It's a hands-on opportunity to apply some of the techniques I advise my clients to use. You can find past updates here.

One small mistake caused the whole relationship to unravel.

My wife, Sally, and I had high hopes when we hired a company to install air conditioning at The Overlook. We were looking to find a reliable partner that could service the HVAC system going forward. Our property manager was interested in a referral to serve the more than 50 homes they managed.

The company's general manager made one small mistake when he wrote the estimate. And when that mistake began to unravel, he focused on the wrong details. It soon became a big problem.

This could have been prevented if the general manager had seen the big picture.

Why you should anticipate problems

Service failures can cause customers to actively consider pulling their business. It takes time and money to make things right. You are almost always better off preventing a problem than having to fix it.

The problem the general manager missed was a simple one.

The thermostat at The Overlook is located in the living room. The heat from the afternoon sun tricked the thermostat into thinking the house was hot, so the air conditioner kept running even though the rest of the house was cold.

He spent a lot of time walking the property when he created the estimate. Many other problems were anticipated. His thoroughness was one of the reasons his company won the business, despite being the most expensive bid.

The one mistake shouldn’t have been a big deal. But the problem got worse.

Installation day was a long one. The crew was hoping to get the system installed in one day, because the company was located an hour away. A second day of work would mean two hours of driving.

They were anxious to leave when they started to check the system. The desire to leave quickly overrode the desire to avoid a second trip.

They missed the problem with the thermostat. What they didn’t realize at the time was a second trip would now be inevitable. A trip that would inconvenience the company, and also inconvenience the customer.

Think about the time and effort you put into solving customer problems. How much could you save in time, money, and customer goodwill if those problems were prevented?

How focusing on the little picture can cost you

Getting stuck on a small detail can dramatically increase your costs. Tiny mistakes become huge service failures that drive customers to your competitors.

Sally and I noticed the problem with our AC system the next day. The living room was warm in the afternoon, so it kept running while the rest of the house was cool.

I called the general manager and talked through the issue. He recommended we install some temperature sensors in other rooms. The thermostat could then take an average of all the temperature readings throughout the house and use the average temperature to decide when to run.

We set a time the following Monday for him to come back and meet Sally at the cabin to install the sensors. That was two hours of driving for him, so an extra cost. The Overlook is a two-hour drive from our house, so Sally spent four hours driving plus the extra time on site—effectively the entire day.

He arrived at The Overlook without the sensors. 

They weren't in stock. Rather than re-scheduling the appointment for a time when he had the sensors on-hand, he decided to move forward with the meeting. Sally didn't find out until she was already at the cabin.

The general manager focused on the little picture—keeping the meeting—and lost sight of the fact that he would have to waste two hours and Sally would have to waste an entire day.

He agreed to order the sensors and come back to install them. We tried to handle that appointment remotely, but the technicians sent to do the work couldn't access our smart thermostat without one of us present. Another failure of anticipation.

The technicians just left the sensors at the cabin, which caused another problem. We had guests coming in a few days, and couldn't just leave equipment lying around. Another failure.

This required another visit for Sally. Another day wasted driving to the cabin and back. The general manager saw his profits whittling away, so he initially balked at meeting Sally at the cabin to help install the sensors. He tried to convince Sally that she could do it on her own in "five minutes." Another failure.

He finally relented and agreed to meet her at the cabin. It ended up taking him, an HVAC expert, two hours to get the system working properly, not the five minutes he had promised.

Time and time again, the general manager missed the big picture:

• The thermostat is the key to the whole system.

• We all wanted to minimize time-consuming trips to the cabin.

• A good impression could lead to 50 or more new customers.

Focusing on the big picture can help you avoid problems and repeat problems. It can also help you understand the true value of making things right instead of worrying about small expenses.

Take a moment to think about the big picture from your customer's perspective. How can you help them achieve their goal?

How to focus on the big picture

Customer-focused companies start with a customer experience vision. This is a shared definition of an outstanding experience that gets everyone on the same page.

On an individual level, I recommend the Thank You Letter challenge. It's a powerful visualization exercise that helps you earn positive customer feedback.

Give yourself more time to see the big picture and anticipate problems by slowing down. It’s counterintuitive, but you can often serve customers faster when you go slow.

Think about our AC system. The general manager could have prevented three extra trips to our cabin for his company, plus two extra trips for us, if he had just taken a few minutes to note the location of the thermostat when he created the estimate.