Canadian Music Trade - June/July 2021 | Page 28

Business Matters

By Morgan Ahoff www . canadianmusictrade . com
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How Accidents Happen

“ I didn ’ t have time to write you a short letter , so I wrote you a long one instead .” – Mark Twain

When we hear on the news about a plane crash , it ’ s always clear that it takes more than one problem to make an airliner drop out of the sky . In the case of aviation , there ’ s usually a list of things that compounded to cause the accident : inclement weather , poor visibility , equipment malfunctions , pilot error , miscommunication . It ends with a lot of people having a very bad day .

Incidents in your own business may not be as unfortunate or spectacular as a plane crash , but tend to occur in the same way — situations and errors stack up , until something happens that ’ s not what you or your staff intended . The key to avoiding these negative events is to be very clear on what it is you intend to do .
I came across an interesting example
28 CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE at a drug store the other day . The clerk scanned my items , then remembered she was supposed to promote an item displayed on the counter , and drew my attention to the sale price . I had to move from the end of the checkout to the beginning to see what she was talking about , considered it for a moment , and decided not to buy it after all . Then she asked me , “ Did I give you your receipt already ?” I replied , “ No , I haven ’ t even paid for it yet !” All it takes is a little deviation from the routine and staff are easily discombobulated .
It Will Be Ready in a Week ! Sounds like a good idea : the customer had time to drop it off on a Wednesday , and can come pick it up the following Wednesday . But what if they drop it off on a Monday ? If it doesn ’ t get done by Friday , then the weekend staff are trying to have it ready for Monday . If they run into something they don ’ t understand and try to ask the clerk who talked to the customer , they can ’ t because the clerk doesn ’ t work weekends . This puts the staff in the position of either not completing the work on time , or otherwise guessing to get the work done . Either way , it ’ s not good .
You see , we tend to think of success and failure as dependent on how well people do their jobs . But a lot of the success and failure of your company depends on how you set things up .
One of the hardest things for a company to do is , “ When X happens , then we ’ ll do Y .” Good plan , best intentions . But what if X doesn ’ t happen ? Or doesn ’ t happen when you expected it to ? Or X happens , but the person who ’ s expecting to do Y doesn ’ t find out that X happened ? A good example of this is , “ When it arrives , we ’ ll give you a call .” The customer would also really appreciate a call if it doesn ’ t arrive , or if you find out that the truck it was on caught fire , and the supplier will send another one as soon as their insurance company has completed the investigation .
A good question to ask whenever new information comes in is , “ What is affected