Never Assume.

As I wrote in my post about magic, assumptions can easily lead you astray. Take restaurants. It's pretty easy to guess one of the most important aspects of a restaurant as far as customers are concerned and according to this article, you'd be right.

Cleanliness was rated as the most highly valued aspect of restaurant selection among almost all respondents.

But what is cleanliness? In Barcelona you might be surprised to see the floor of a tapas bar strewn with discarded paper napkins and assume that it was a sloppy institution. You'd be completly wrong. The discarded napkins are, in fact, a traditional vote of customer approval. The messier the floor, the better the food.

Never assume that your prospective customers think the same way that you do or indeed the same way as the majority does. Just find out.