Bottom Line Business Insights : Maryland Business Lawyer & Attorney : Wagonheim Law Firm : Mergers & Acquisitions & Contractual Negotiation

This past weekend, my wife and I stopped in at the Great Grapes Wine Festival at Oregon Ridge. Beautiful day, live music, smiling people all around, great gathering of Maryland wineries…what could be better? Only one thing to complain about as we entered the festival – the business analyst part of me wouldn’t shut up. 

The voice started up when we walked up to buy our tickets -- $25 for each adult, $20 per child. Cash only. 

Those of you who remember my post, Rule #1, will recall that I believe the first imperative in just about any endeavor is that you make it easy for people to do what you want them to do. Great Grapes wanted paid attendance; the more people, the better. 

First Violation

Great Grapes had implemented a cash only policy in a card-centric world. How many people do you know who routinely carry $50 in cash? If you factor in payment for food, guests would need more cash than just the admission price. Equally as important, the policy seemed to come as a surprise to many of those walking up to purchase tickets to the festival. Some turned around and walked out.

Second Violation

There was one ATM machine on site. The machine charged a $3.50 service fee and was set at a $40 maximum cash outlay. Translation: If someone wanted cash for two tickets, he or she had to process two transactions, resulting in double the time spent at the machine and an irritating $7.00 total service fee. So now, Great Grapes had an increasingly long line of grumbling would-be patrons waiting to be robbed by the one ATM on site so they could comply with the irritatingly narrow ticket purchasing policy. (At least the festival served alcohol.)

Third Violation

Having made it past the ticket counter, we were directed to a tent where we could pick up our wine glasses. There were pre-printed signs along the table reading (as best I can recall):

“So you’re the jerk who dropped your glass. Instead of creating a scene, please just pay the $5 charge for an additional glass and try to drink responsibly.”

Now, I get that the festival shouldn’t have to replace broken wine glasses free of charge. But do you really want to alienate paying customers from whom you want repeat business at future festivals by assuming them to be drunken jerks…and then labeling them as such in pre-printed signs?  

Make no mistake about it; we enjoyed our time at the festival, once the original irritation wore off.   We sampled some new wines and even bought a few bottles to take home. Unfortunately, that’s when we unwittingly began the course of events leading us to observe the…

Fourth Violation

As we prepared to leave one of the tents with the 2 bottles we had just purchased, the cashier asked if we wanted to take the bottle with us or simply pick them up at will-call. Pleased that someone would hold them for us, we accepted our voucher and decided on will call. Two hours later, the clouds swept in.

Here’s the scene: The band was playing, looking out on the crowd under fairly blue skies. The crowd was looking back, over the bandstand, to the rather ominous looking clouds gathering above and behind the band. People began packing up; first a trickle, then a flood toward the exits. That’s when we discovered that there was one will-call tent for all the wineries at the festival. The tent was manned by severely overwhelmed staff ill-equipped to deal with a large crowd, now being soaked by a serious downpour. Rumors of coming “golf ball sized hail” (that never came) swept over the line, causing already wet people to become anxious. 

The festival organizers had wanted people to view will-call as both a convenience and as another reason to patronize future festivals. Because it was organized in such a way that it was incapable of handling a closing-time exit (even if closing time came earlier because of the weather), it became yet another area of dissatisfaction.

Bottom Line: Each time the attendees touched the infrastructure of the festival, they came away unhappy. The sole reason for this dissatisfaction was the organizer’s failure, at each point of contact, to observe Rule #1. They clearly knew what they wanted people to do. The organizers understood, at each step of the way, what path they wanted patrons to take. They simply failed to make it easy, enjoyable, or memorable -- in a good way.

I’m wondering if they’ll do better next year. I may never know, of course, because I won’t be there to find out.

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It is a simple lesson learned by those good at what they do.  The world's best software designers use it as their primary focus, as do diplomats, the nation's top deal-makers, and (believe it or not) legislators evaluating U.S. tax policy.  Whatever the path, there are many roads to a successful outcome, but they all start with Rule #1:  Make it easy for people to do what you want them to do. 

Allow me to illustrate.

Two weeks ago, my 10 year old came down with strep throat.  Once he spiked a fever, my wife took him to our neighborhood urgent care center.   To date, I've received three statements from my insurance carrier.  Three separate envelopes.  Three detailed statements.  I still don't know what I owe.  I presume these people want me to pay them.  (Why else would they send me the statements?)  I want to pay them.  But they're not making it easy.  Instead, they are making it almost inevitable that I will do one of three things:

1. Delay paying them until I can sort out their bill
2. Call  their customer service number and tie up a representative for a while, thereby raising their employment costs by making such people necessary in the first place
3. Pay the wrong amount, forcing their accounting people to deal with the discrepancy

Not one of these things is what the insurance company wants. They want their payment promptly; and they're not going to get it.  This company has failed to follow Rule #1. 

Every facet of your business, from employee policies to marketing and customer service, should be created from the ground up in service to Rule #1. In other words, for each part of your business, figure out what you want and then develop policies which make it easy for people to give it to you. 

• If you want people to pay you timely, make your bills easy to understand, stick religiously to a schedule when sending them out, make sure they do not contain unpleasant surprises,  give people a variety of ways to pay, and submit your invoices or requests for payment in a form readily acceptable by your customers.
   
• If you want your customers to use you as a resource, make it easy for them to find and contact you on at their convenience.   (If your business serves construction contractors, for example, you better be reachable at 7:00 a.m. because that's when they're on the job site.)
   
• If you want to know what your employees are thinking, create policies which incent them to provide their input and make it easy for them to do so. 
   
• If you want someone to keep sending work your way, figure out how you could make sending you work a no-brainer for them.   For example, see if you can send referral sources a quick reference which would serve the dual purpose of making their job easier while keeping your company's contact information front and center.  Another example would be to offer free services such as assessment or contract review to enable your referral sources to get the ball rolling on a project without cost.  After all, once you're in; you're in. 

Rule #1 applies equally to customers, employees, partners, and investors. Too many company policies exist simply because they always have.  As noted by despair.com

"Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid." 

If that's where you are, change. The tough part, of course, is actually examining each facet of your business -- from HR policies to website design -- to figure out what response you want, and what kind of responses are counterproductive.  Once you have that figured out, discard the policies that do not serve Rule #1 and build on those that do.

Good luck.

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