I am all for quick and easy. In fact, we live in such a fast-paced world with so many technological improvements and advancements—we Westerners have come to expect that things will happen instantaneously. When it comes to our home businesses, however, we really need to work at balancing quick and easy with efficiency, thoroughness and complete customer service.
It can be a difficult business reality to balance. We have to be able to compete and that often means a quick turnaround and ability to meet very steep deadlines. But, we also need to do quality work and make sure that we are building our business on a solid foundation. We also want to make things as easy and comfortable as possible for our customers—but if we make things too easy and we are willing to jump through too many hoops to make our customers happy, are we training them to expect something all the time that we might not be able to deliver?
I often think of the metaphor of baking a cake (since I am such an avid baker)—sure, sometimes it is perfectly fine and functional to mix up a box cake mix and use the canned frosting. And it tastes just fine. BUT, taking the time to make and bake a cake from scratch inevitably turns out a tastier, better result. And, I can specialize—make a special recipe that isn’t one of the “off the shelf” flavors available at my neighborhood market. The same goes for business—sometimes, quick and easy is just fine and it keeps the customer happy—but it often takes a little longer and a little more care to turn out a quality product or service with exemplary customer service. We have to learn to read and gage our own market and customer base in order to determine which is the best route to take.
See Also: Age, Gender and Salary–the Big Three
Do You Know What Your Customers Want?