Seth's Blog : The road to imperfection

If you need to be perfect, it's hard to press the 'ship it' button. Difficult to hire someone who makes things happen (because you'll be responsible for what happens). Frightening to put yourself into a position where you're expected to...

The road to imperfection

If you need to be perfect, it's hard to press the 'ship it' button. Difficult to hire someone who makes things happen (because you'll be responsible for what happens). Frightening to put yourself into a position where you're expected to introduce new work.

The only way is forward. Forward moves us from what we have now (perfect, or at least we're no longer living in fear of what's not right) to a world filled with nothing but imperfect.

If you want motion, the only way is through. We get to the work we seek by passing through imperfection.

       

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More Recent Articles

• Omotenashi and the service split
• Tricked into playing the wrong game
• When your marketplace shifts
• Two quality spirals worth avoiding
• Most vs. Enough

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Seth's Blog : Omotenashi and the service split

It is possible to deliver amazing service without being servile. Omotenashi is the Japanese word for treating people the way you'd want to be treated, for a posture of customer service that builds long-term trust and loyalty. Why the split?...

Omotenashi and the service split

It is possible to deliver amazing service without being servile.

Omotenashi is the Japanese word for treating people the way you'd want to be treated, for a posture of customer service that builds long-term trust and loyalty.

Why the split?

In a self-service world, the person who provides the service is us. We get what we want precisely because the system has been built to make us our own provider of service. This is why most people would rather order from a menu, pick our own travel itinerary or brush our own teeth.

When done right, self-service is a great option to offer customers. When done to merely cut costs, or when done with a poor understanding of the user, it's mostly annoying.

The alternative, then, is to provide actual customer delight via service. To bring Omotenashi to the table, to offer human service that's even better than the customer could provide for herself.

One way to think about this is to consider the airlines. In almost everything they do, the airline experience today is inferior to what it was on Pan Am in 1972. Every time the airline gets involved, their efforts to cut costs exceed their commitment to service.

On the other hand, in the ways that the airlines have given passengers control of their choices (seeing available flights, for example, or choosing their own onboard pasttime), satisfaction has had a chance to increase.

If you're going to do it for us, do it beautifully.

       

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More Recent Articles

• Tricked into playing the wrong game
• When your marketplace shifts
• Two quality spirals worth avoiding
• Most vs. Enough
• One way to think about talent

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Seth's Blog : Tricked into playing the wrong game

The intelligent writer who dumbs down her work in order to make it more popular. The successful small businessperson who gives up the edge that made the business work in order to make it bigger. The entrepreneur who stops leading...

Tricked into playing the wrong game

The intelligent writer who dumbs down her work in order to make it more popular.

The successful small businessperson who gives up the edge that made the business work in order to make it bigger.

The entrepreneur who stops leading in order to chase a trend and get funded.

The interesting website that stops caring about content so it can focus on clicks.

The happy kid who abandons good friends in a search to be the cool kid instead.

The beloved brand that walks away from integrity in order to chase mass.

The engaged employee who gives up the craft in order to move up and become an unhappy manager instead...

Bigger isn't better. It's merely bigger. And the mass market might want what the mass market wants, but that doesn't mean that it's your market.

       

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More Recent Articles

• When your marketplace shifts
• Two quality spirals worth avoiding
• Most vs. Enough
• One way to think about talent
• Two kinds of winning

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