This may not be the kind of change you’d normally think of on a blog about management ideas. Think coins.
Consider the last several times you were given change by a cashier. How often did you receive the bills first and the coins on top? Let me count the problems with this strategy: the coins often end up on the floor (or the ground below the drive-thru window), it takes two hands to put away your change, it’s counter-intuitive (change should be counted back), balancing a stack of coins on a stack of bills is difficult, I could go on.
I remember a research study from my college days that concluded that when human contact (touch) is made during a transaction, customers rated the experience higher than when no touch was made. When you give the coins back first, contact is made. Of course, I can’t track that study down to reference here, but let’s just take my word for it.
So while this is all very interesting (and frustrating), my point here isn’t really about coins and bills. It’s about details. They matter. Whether you’re interacting with clients or managing internal processes, the care you give to executing your work with quality pays dividends.
In a competitive environment, a small improvement in your process can be the differentiator that gets and keeps business. I’d argue that it’s safe to assume that clients will learn about how you handle big problems by the way you handle the small details. Have you ever walked into a filthy bathroom at a restaurant? Did it make you think about the cleanliness of the kitchen? (And did you stick around for dinner?)
So start sweating the small stuff and see where it takes you. Oh, and put the coins in my hand before the bills.
Tags: change, details, management, process
