I just picked up a Magellan RoadMate 1400. There was no real magic behind my decision. I’m not usually taken by all of the hype to buy the latest and greatest thing (although the live traffic feature of the 1430 would’ve been nice - if it would’ve been in stock). Instead I relied upon references from friends heavily, my own experiences , a competitive price, and brand to a lesser degree.

I resisted purchasing a GPS up until this point just because the need wasn’t pressing enough - and probably some of that bravado men share about taking direction. Well, yesterday I had finally reached a tipping point and picked one up. After one day of using the product, it struck me, what could my business learn from a GPS?

What’s in a Choice?

There were a few key factors in my decision to not only purchase a GPS, but which brand to purchase. Why did I purchase a Magellan instead of a Garmin or TomTom?

1. References: My friends recommended the Magellan simply by using it. I had used Garmin, and liked it, but I never heard any recommendations.
2. Price: The price was competitive.
3. Branding: TomTom? What is that? I can’t take that name seriously.

So, when all things were equal, the references were the key deciding factor. Price and brand were also important, but not weighted as heavily.

What Encourages Loyalty?

Any experienced business owner will tell you that the initial purchase is only one step in the life cycle of sale. You must also deliver upon or exceed the expectations the customer had at the time of purchase.

Many companies rely upon the hope that the hassle of a return is greater than the disappointment in their ability to deliver on the packaging.

The time it took me to pull the GPS unit out of the bag and begin to feel comfortable using it was about 10 minutes. The hardest thing about getting started was figuring out how to open the packaging. Do packaging engineers get their kicks out of “open-proofing” their packages?

So, I was up and running in about 10 minutes and had it mounted in my car within another 10 minutes. And in using it for just one day, it helped us not only get from point A to point B, but make a few educated stops along the way.

Here are my takeaways from what a business should learn from a GPS after the sale:

1. Quick Setup: The easier your product or service is to use from the start, the more I want to use it. This also means your business collects on the residual revenue more quickly if you have this model in place.
2. Friendly to use: There is a difference, in my mind, between quick setup and daily use of the system. The principal here is not to let the product or service get in the way of the user experience. Instead, you want to enhance the user experience.
3. Give me what I want, not what you want: If you give me what I want in an easy to use and friendly package, I will likely buy from you. I was finding things I wanted to see in minutes, not just what the computer had “in stock”.
4. 1.3 million points of interest: If I get stuck and need help, the GPS was there with suggestions. I may or may not take them, but only when I got stuck did it attempt to help. Remember, don’t get in the way of a man and his natural sense of direction.

Remember, running a business isn’t so much about pushing product out the door. This is important, but you have to ensure that product is a fit for your customers in the long term for you to build loyalty.

Today, customers can generally buy competitive products from many different sources, and more and more consumers are savvy on price- and feature-shopping. Now you must figure out whether your features will not only bring your customers closer for the initial sale, but if your benefits will keep your customers coming back for more. In this case, Magellan was a winner and I have moved from shopper, to customer, and now returning customer should my need for navigational GPS again arise.

This weekend, the weekend before our celebrations begin in honor of our independence here in America, I found a lost feeling I had somewhat forgotten.

This weekend started on Friday much like any other, but instead of coming home to a rushed spouse and quick peck on the lips as she darted off to class, instead I came home to a wife and child eagerly welcoming me to the dinner table.  You see, this has not be the norm in my household for over a year now, and it seems odd to see this type of event now that I have grown accustomed to the distance.

We proceed to finish our dinner. After dinner we, as a family, lounged all over each other on our over-sized leather sofa while watching a wonderfully fantastic adventure, nibbling on popcorn and sipping a drink of our choice. The movie offered some scares and wows, each offering my wife and I opportunities to smile a smile of knowing love at each other only parents might know.

Friday soon passed, and Saturday morning came as usual: My wife running off to school and my daughter running into to use me as her ad hoc jungle gym. After lounging for a bit, my daughter and I managed to find our way to a friend’s wedding where my we enjoyed many smiles and excellent food. We came home to find our cozy beds and sweet dreams, to awake the next morning.

I was greeted by the banging of my daughter on our bedroom door; this has become the norm in lieu of a doorbell, I suppose. The family readied for church and had a wonderful time taking in a great lesson on patience. After service we found ourselves in the typical rush, ironically as it would seem. One might wonder if we actually paid attention.

After lunch, we parted ways as my wife made the 2 hour round trip to pick-up our monster-, aahumm, mother-in-law. I tidied up the house a bit.

At around 6 pm, we toddled on over to something our church was putting on called the “County Fair”, filled with carnival rides, great music, and free hot dogs! Several thousand people were there enjoying the festivities, and parents and teenagers alike were braving the lengthy lines in order to step onto a ride or two.

We managed to find our way through the crowds, and even met some friends and exchanged smiles and handshakes.

As nightfall began to close in, we found our way to a plush, grassy hilltop in preparation of the coming fireworks. And soon they started; booms and thunder ensued. We snuggled close to one another and covered our heads with blankets as the rain began to sprinkle our foreheads.

And in that instant, we found something digital mediums have subtly offered and still attempt to provide - a connection. It was a weekend full of emotion, both good and bad; a weekend of connections - of relationships.

You see, the digital divide is in truth just that. We have allowed ourselves to succumb to the lure of efficiency and mobility. And yes response-time, or up-time, or whatever “-time” you may want might be markedly improved. However, what I would offer is it might have come at the expense of plain ole’ quality time.

Twitter - check! FriendFeed - check!, BlackBerry - check! iPod Touch - check!, GPS navigation system - check! overly-connected - check!

Tonight I traded the noise on the net for the screams of excitement in the crowd of fair-goers; Tonight I traded the dim glow of my computer screen for the explosion of fireworks against the night sky; Tonight I found out that being disconnected is where true connectivity begins.

In the quick pauses between thunderous explosions and nibbles of cotton candy an experience is reborn anew, the human connection.