Please Wait

No one likes to wait. It’s an infringement on our personal use of time. We could always be doing something else, something more important, something more fun than waiting. Waiting strikes a very personal chord.

So, when does it make sense to add one more...?

• Barista

• Sales Clerk

• Call Center Operator

• Teacher

• Bank Teller

• Engineer

There’s a fair amount of research and science behind the systems we’ve created to minimize waiting. Even if economics was incidental, only so many people can be enlisted for any particular task due to physical, skill and mental constraints. But, machines and processes can be engineered to solve for some of the variables otherwise bound by human limitations...speed, time and specification. We can use machines to make things more quickly and more accurately. Slowly, but surely, we’ve replaced people with bits, bytes, robots and systems. In the process, we’ve also changed the tolerance by those being served. We tolerate not being looked in the eye, greeted warmly on the telephone and having someone care enough to solve our particular problem right away. We’ve traded personal for immediate, cheaper and sometimes more reliable.

But, at some point, somewhere in the system, a human needs to decide. Someone needs to choose which variable to solve for. Someone needs to handle the unique problem which has escalated beyond the front line system. Someone with the skills of generosity, empathy and the goal of building trust needs to show up...because at some point it always becomes personal. And it’s virtually impossible to engineer our way around it.

Our patience changes, just like our mood and affinity for fashion. One person’s idea of an acceptable time to wait is often not for the person next to them. It’s unique to our mood, our circumstances and what we believe to be the right thing.

The important work is to make things personal at just the right moment...to delight someone. This requires more than engineering. It requires leadership, and all the skills most engineering tries to avoid.

We need good engineering. But we also need the art of making things personal. Because ultimately we are humans serving humans.

Sorting

When we show up somewhere, at the movie theater, bus station, hotel or a hospital we want our problem solved. Not the other guy's problem. We are looking for personal attention to our concern or desire. Of course, most of the places aren't set up that way. They make us stand in line at the hotel front desk, the bus ticket counter, the grocery check-out line or take a seat in a crowded waiting room. Generally, we all have the same problem or request...register at the hotel, buy a bus ticket or groceries, or we're sick. But, one step further and our needs fragment quickly. One person is at the hotel for a meeting, another on vacation. One person is taking the bus across country, the other to a town an hour away. My child has a broken arm, yours has the flu. Yet, we're all stuffed or channeled into the same place. Why?

Because it's easier for the business...that's the only reason. It would be better (much better) for you and me if someone met us at the door, quickly understood our problem and began solving it...not the other guy's. That means they would listen sort. Going to Cleveland? That requires some additional planning and time...you go there. Jonesboro...no problem, it's our most popular trip...an express ticket option is available here...done. You're here because you feel like you have the flu?...go into this special area (quarantined) with other flu like people. Broken arm? Right this way to Xray.

In business, we have an inherent problem up front, at the sorting point. We bottle neck it. We often combine the least experienced talent with a "process" to solve it..bad combination, for the customer anyway. A better way is to put a lot of energy, time and talent into solving the sorting process. Painful at first, but extremely effective long-term. This is not an area to follow someone's lead. You need to define your own method and category. Southwest did it with open seating. You can too.

One tip...a self-check in kiosk or self check-out scanner is rarely the answer...an intelligent person is.