Embrace the Freedom of Predictability Though Processes and Standards

Why do franchises generally succeed? It’s not because they have an incredible marketing campaign or even the fact that their product or service is somehow outstanding compared to the local independent competitor. No, it’s about consistency and predictability to the consumer while operating in a proven, efficient business model.

Your business should operate as if you were making banana bread, one batch after another. The banana bread looks the same, tastes the same, and has the same consistency. Your business should have a consistent product or service that looks nearly identical time after time.? Customer ‘A’ should have the same exact experience as Customer ‘B’.

When you make a recipe, there are ingredients, directions on what to mix and when, time and temperature requirements, and, at times, even recommended adjustments for high altitude. Within your business, there are your supplies, vendors, reordering steps, policies and procedures, hours of operation, paperwork, filing, and the list goes on. A business or any organization must have a recipe to follow so that each person knows how, what, why, and when to do something.

You can go into a Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, or Cinemark theater anywhere in the country and have a consistent experience.? Of course, the interaction might be slightly different, but the basic orchestrated experience will be identical no matter where you are and who’s serving you as a customer.

It is also predictable when a smaller ‘mom & pop’ business tries to grow; they run smack into deciding whether to embrace a model of consistency, predictability and following steps that can be duplicated. They love the autonomy of making a decision on the fly and going with the flow. They don’t want to be constrained or have the “corporation” feel. The problem is once you remove the owner’s or key employees’ experience and ability to discern what’s best in any given scenario and place that request on a new employee – the whole thing blows up. Everything now becomes an exception and you’re left with chaos and dysfunction. The new person has no idea how to make the right decision and problems ensue.

If we take snapshot of today, next week or next month, employees should be using the same language, repeating the same steps and there should be predictable outcome every time. If you’re off by 10-15-20% with each employee or process, then every outcome becomes an issue you must resolve. Employees are left frustrated and business suffers.

Give yourself the gift of peace and embrace having predictable processes and procedures for every aspect of your business. ?Write them down, practice them, refine them, train them, and repeatedly go over them until it’s consistent every time, with no exceptions.

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