I had a couple of experiences in the past year that made me say, “Well, that was easy!” out loud. I was both surprised and impressed by the speed and ease of which my requests were fulfilled, but then I started wondering why an easy process was almost shocking. I realized it’s because many of the tasks we do daily and interactions we have with businesses are unnecessarily difficult. First to give credit where credit is due - here are the two experiences that were easy peasy lemon squeezy!
I was so pleased with these two experiences that I told a bunch of people about them (even better marketing idea than giving kids free tickets to an event - make people talk about how great you are!) One of the people I told was my mom, who made a very interesting observation. Both of those interactions involved human beings, not merely technology. Now, I work in a technology area, so technology is something I like and am familiar with, but there was no denying what she observed was true. "...the key isn’t personal interaction in and of itself, but instead the focus on how customers want to use and access their products and services and how those same customers want to be treated during the process." It seems like the businesses that are thriving these days are the ones that are make things easy - Netflix, Amazon, Uber to name a few. These examples certainly use technology, so maybe the key isn’t personal interaction in and of itself, but instead the focus on how customers want to use and access their products and services and how those same customers want to be treated during the process. Have you ever been to Chick-Fil-A where they are extremely polite or to Dress Barn where they learn your name and bring you different sizes and suggest additional styles that may be flattering? They seem to be concerned about how people want to be treated. My local pharmacy considers how I want to access their services and realizes I don’t want to wait in line - they texted me when they noticed my insurance card was out of date, and all I had to do was text them back a picture of the card to get it updated prior to my next visit. Staples started the ‘That was Easy’ campaign in 2003, and even though they abandoned that a few years ago, I think a lot of us would really like to push the metaphorical “Easy Button” a lot more often! Since my recent positive experiences, I’ve been brainstorming about how to make tedious or inconvenient processes easier either through human interaction or technology or maybe a balanced combination- - hoping for a lightening bolt moment to start the next big thing! I took away a few things for personal productivity from this:
What processes do you dread because they are over-complicated and what ones make you say, "That was easy"? How can you make your own life more productive and how can you impact others to make their lives easier? Share with us in the comments below.
2 Comments
Rebekah Hanna
2/25/2018 11:50:48 am
Another great and timely post!
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Claire
2/26/2018 11:15:58 pm
Glad you liked it - this is one of my favorite topics - how to make things easier!!
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