Archives for the month of: October, 2015
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Metal Staircases

October 7, 2015 //
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Metal staircases create a rotten first impression. They tell you that either they can’t be bothered to properly dress this part of a building, or that they can’t be bothered to create a good first impression with you.

I was staying at a hotel the other day. It was nearly impossible to find the stairs, which would be a worry if a fire alert precluded use of the abundant lifts. We had to ask a member of the cleaning staff to show us where they were. And they were horrid, as if the hotel wouldn’t dream of their valued guests ever wanting or needing to take the stairs.

Then there’s London Gatwick airport. When you come in from Ireland off the plane they take you through a different terminal entrance. I think the purpose of this is that you avoid having to show your passport, which is a useful micro-efficiency, but to get there you go through two flights of hideous metal staircases that wouldn’t look out of place in the staff stair well of a 1970’s hospital. It’s not a great first impression or airport welcome.

To my mind it’s really important you plan the literal journey your customer is going take to your home, office, town, or country. Do you want to make a good impression or a poor one? Do you care either way? Actually, you don’t have to tell us, because we’ll know.

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Categories Communication, Customers, General

Micro-efficiencies and Toes

October 5, 2015 //
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‘Take care of the pennies,’ they used to say, ‘and the pounds will take care of themselves.’ Small positive differences add up to make large important ones.

It’s not just with monetary gains; it’s the same with time-based gains too.

I love the little tips or glimpses of the inside track that I get from people to help me be more productive during my day. It might be a computer keyboard short cut, or it might be something completely different.

Take the gaps between toes for example. Yes, you read that right. We’re all supposed to dry between our toes after a shower, yet sometimes when all our time is tightly accounted for from the moment we wake to the time we go to bed, it seems like it’s one of those things not worth doing, in the rush to get dressed and onto the day. We neglect these important areas at our peril, since such a devil-may-care approach to our hygiene can lead to athlete’s foot, which can be a devil to shift.

Sometimes I can’t be bothered to bend down and do it properly, and sometimes I forget and can’t be bothered to head back to the bathroom to complete this most mundane of tasks.

My good lady has a great save for this, which I shall start doing immediately. She ‘flosses’ the gaps with her socks before she puts them on. Simple, yet brilliant, since people generally sit to put socks on and stand to towel off. It’s therefore a natural step, and a micro-efficient one of genius too.

I’m sure there are lots of other micro-efficiencies that simply don’t get propagated through the population. Next time you floss between your toes after a shower, remember you read it here first :-).

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Categories General

Clean vs Tidy

October 2, 2015 //
2

Continuing what has turned into a slightly spousal series of posts recently, I would say that in general I’m a tidy person. Things tend to be in the right place, even if they could occasionally benefit from a well placed duster. My wife, on the other hand, is a clean person. She cleans things regularly, and properly. There’s nothing slap dash about her cleaning.

My cleaning, however, is sporadic, perfunctory and only semi-thorough. But I think I’m the tidier of the 2.

Is it a gross generalisation to argue that in the main men are tidy whereas women are clean? Does a regular person with both skills exist? Can you be both?

Of course, we should all be both, or a combination of both. So what’s the right combination, the right balance? It’s the same dilemma with our working lives as well as our domestic ones. For example, from the tidy person’s perspective our emails might be filed beautifully, but how often do we clean out the old stuff, the stuff we simply will never need again? Our Linked connection invites and responses may be up to date, but how often do we prune the network and remove the people we can’t even remember?

As with many things, it’s a question of finding out the right balance to give you what you need in terms of creativity and productivity.

 

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