Four days. Three colleges. And one fabulous opportunity to observe the teenage consumer decision-making process in action. Last week I had the pleasure of observing my son as he took in his options and began processing intense amounts of information in preparation for making one of the biggest decisions of his life.

College is, of course, an extremely high-involvement decision. Scholarships aside (and we’re counting on them) it is among the most expensive and consequential decisions any of us makes. And the fact that such a weighty decision happens at the tender young age of seventeen or eighteen makes the stakes even higher (the reason most parents offer all the free advice and guidance a son or daughter could want).

Here’s what’s odd. You’d think that for such a significant decision, the determining factor would be substantive issues like size, curriculum, faculty, tuition, or even location and campus culture. But since my son had already narrowed his choices to a fairly similar set of schools, the colleges we visited weren’t very different in those arenas (in fact, the total for tuition, fees and room & board were virtually identical, which my cynical side found unsurprising).

The schools, however, didn’t seem to appreciate their lack of differentiation, even though they all admitted that they regularly compete with one another for students. That made the thousands and thousands of dollars they spent on websites, printed materials and admissions counselors all the more interesting to me.

What we were left with were impressions made by the odds and ends of each visit–the counselor who talked too fast, giving us the sense that she’d done this a few too many times, the welcome desk that had no record of our appointment (even though it had been arranged ahead of time), the quality of that day’s menu in the cafeteria, or the tour guide who seemed to intentionally avoid certain buildings. Not all of these odds and ends were negative, of course, and there were some pleasant surprises. But I found it interesting how weighty these otherwise insignificant elements of the decision process may end up being in the end.

The campus visit is only one part of the bigger decision, and my son has more research and reflection to do over the coming months. But visiting a place where he may be spending the next four or five years of his life presents the most sensory-rich opportunity for any college to seal the deal. They each had well developed orientation programs in place, but how those programs were executed on that day with this student could end up making all the difference.

It’s a good reminder for your business and mine. Plans are terrific and intentions are fine, but without consistent execution none of it matters.