True story:
This morning I was sitting in the home of a friend who’s selling that home. The doorbell rings, followed by the immediate entrance of my friend’s real estate broker. There was an open house and a showing scheduled. My friend hadn’t been made aware. Bedlum ensued.
After the expected running around to make the house presentable in a hurry, the question gets asked: How did this happen?
That question was asked in a slightly less polite manner, by the way.
The answer didn’t matter, expect for this: the broker had screwed up, and had done so over something that could absolutely have been prevented. Her answer was that she had sent an email advising my friend of the showing. My friend’s answer was that she hadn’t received it or didn’t remember it.
Now reasonably that makes this at least partially my friend’s “fault”, but fault isn’t the issue; the issue is that when running a business you have to put business process in place that insures against simple mix-ups like this happening. A follow-up e-mail? A phone call? Nope, the broker confirmed that those things hadn’t happened.
Again, ignore the idea of assigning blame. The issue is that the broker is in the business of making houses she’s trying to sell move through the system as easily as possible, and had failed to make sure that busines process was in place to cover that.
Simple business process. Easily enacted business process. Process that should have just been . . . taken care of.
Look at your business and ask yourself what you’re missing. You’ll be surprised at how many things yu can come up with by just putting a little thought into this once or twice a year. You can even have The Answer Guy help if you think a fresh set of eyes will add (they often do).
No matter what you do, how cool or unique it is, or how smart you are, it’s the simple things that make your business run better. Start peeking around, and tell me what you find!
