Episode #210: ARE SHORTCUTS REALLY WORTH IT?

The question for this show is an age-old chin-rubber. Are business shortcuts really worth it?

What are the typical end results on the backside of vendor claims that the four-hour job can be completed in two hours, or that four-day job can be wrapped up two days? In my life, the results are mixed, with the highest percentage leaning towards low quality of work. Reality dictates that rapid job completion is often associated with a host of unwanted problems for customers. So, the various questions for today center on how we value quality of work, versus speed of work? Where do our customers weigh in on this? Are there ways for vendors to deliver both speed, and quality? Join us for a fast show designed to facilitate healthy thoughts and ideas about making customers happy.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, are shortcuts really worth it? I mean, come on, seriously. Let's, let's talk about this. Stick around. Alright , Mr . Simple Biz Guy , lets guide to show . Hello everybody and thank you for tuning into this Simple Biz 360 podcast. My name is Jeff Mason and I'm your host on this episode. And we can be found on YouTube Rumble TV 28 audio platforms. And we have a book on Amazon, simple Biz 360 Timeless Business Tools. You can get it , uh, in Kindle paperback or audio, and you can get it right through our website, which is simple biz three sixty.com . So today we are begging the question, are shortcuts really worth it? Well, what are shortcuts? Well, in my opinion, not always, but on average, shortcuts are really the result of somebody , uh, selling speed. So in other words, you have a situation, you have a contractor , you've turned to someone, and you kind of need it done fast, and they go, no problem, man. Right? And so I'm gonna ask you to think about this in your own life. I'm just gonna draw from two examples on my own. One word , somebody said, oh , I can fix that leaked dude, two hours, gimme two hours, I'll have it knocked out. So I gave him the job, right? So it was $900, took him four hours, and guess what? I still had a leak. And I turned to somebody else and they said, oh my gosh, what did this guy do? Um, I'll fix it for you for another 900. Didn't ever promise any time . And it actually took them about six hours. But you know what , uh, it got fixed permanently. And I, I realized that hey, the speedy solution was probably the shortcut solution based on what this other contractor told me, that they found all kinds of, you know, shortcuts in what was done. I had another situation where a gentleman was doing a project and said, Hey, this, don't worry, dude, this will be done today. And I thought, today, there's no way, dude. He said, yeah, this will be done today. I said , I scratched my head and said, okay, you know, I'm like saying to myself, no way. Well, it took three more days, so it took four days. So, you know, there's a lot of optimism out there. A lot of people want to sell speed, a lot of contractors, a lot of businesses. But my question to you is, what are your experiences with speed? Because I think speed are just a series of shortcuts in disguise. That's what I think it is . And what do you think it is ? But here's the better question. As business operators and business owners and managers, do we wanna be in the business of selling rapidness speed? We can finish the job quicker than anybody else? I don't know. I mean, we hear stories about it, you know, in certain sectors like the , um, you know , they're building highways or bridges and they get incentives to do it quicker and this, that and the other thing . And , and , you know , the , the appeal is there, but on average , I have found as a consumer, and I'm wondering about you on average , I just think ,

Speaker 2: 2:58

Think speed is a series of shortcuts in disguise. So we asked this question today, what do we need to do to figure out if speed is the solution? Well, I think the easiest thing we all can do is just sit down in very realistic terms with our customers and ask them what they want. Because if you, if you said to a cust potential customer that you're afraid trying to cram all that in in two weeks, you need three weeks. That if you did it in two weeks, I , I think the only way I could achieve it, Mr. Customer, Mrs. Customers, to take a few shortcuts. And I really don't know what they are at this point, but I , I , you know, I'm not comfortable saying two weeks, I need the three weeks. And if you think you need it done in two weeks and you want to go use another contractor, I would just say fine, go ahead. But do it eyes wide open, because I think that that speed is just a series of shortcuts in disguise. So we leave that kind of thought with you today. Is it something that , um, you know, you want your businesses to be associated with, something you want to sell to your customers? Well, you know what easiest thing to do is to ask your customers. So today we're gonna do a cool Lost in the Shuffle tune , uh, buy a band called Spooky Tooth . Then they were , uh, they were an English band, but they had a Crest Gill , New Jersey native , um, Gary Wright, who you may know from the famous song Dreamweaver. Well, Gary Wright was part of this band for a couple short , a couple short albums or a couple albums, a couple short years. And this tune is waiting for the Wind. We are a 1974 spooky tooth . Have a great week and we will see you in 168 .