The “undo” feature in most apps is wildly unappreciated. We see it as “just put it back how it was”, which it does, but the work required for that is more complicated than you think.
By default, when you make a change in a piece of software (like typing in a Word document), it simply makes the change. If you ask to “undo”, there’s nothing to go back to because the entire software is now showing what you changed it to. In order to make “undo” work, the software has to continually save various copies of your work over time so that it has something that it’s able to go back to. “Undo” works amazingly well, and I’m thankful for those that came up with the idea.
Beyond software, though, your customers need an “undo” button as well. I see two places where this comes in.
Website
“Undo” works for little changes while you work, but if you make a major change to your website and things fall apart, what do you do? There’s no “undo” button for that. In our case, this is why we keep many backups of every site, so that no matter what happens (even big things like a hack or a crash) it’s very easy to “undo” the error and get back to business.
Contracts
We also do the same with our contracts. Really, it’s our lack of contracts. When you sign an agreement with us, there is no term to it. While we love to work with clients for many years, and generally do, keeping someone arbitrarily locked in is just a weird thing to do. If things change and someone wants to “undo” the agreement with us, it’s super easy. I want clients to stick with us because we’re the best solution for their needs, and if those needs to change to something where we’re not the right solution, making that switch should be very simple.
How do you help your clients “undo” problems in their businesses?
