Customer Service Articles:

THE LAW OF THE SMALL

What service grade would you give yourself on a scale from 1-10 (10 being exceptional)? Most people give themselves a 7…or sometimes they will stretch to an 8. So how do you get from wherever you are now to the highest level of service? It may surprise you to know that the differences between where your service efforts are now and where you want to be, is likely not by making huge changes. Rather it’s often by making strategic small, but significant, alterations that result in real transformation.

WHAT IS THE LAW OF THE SMALL?

The Law of the Small is, ‘small strategic changes that greatly impact outcomes.’

If you’ve ever noticed how sometimes small changes, can end up creating completely different outcomes, then you’ll resonate with the Law of the Small.

3 EXAMPLES OF THE LAW OF THE SMALL AT WORK.

1. ONE DEGREE: THE 1-IN-60 RULE

I recently was on a flight, and the passenger next to me happened to be an off-duty pilot. During our flight, he shared with me something in aviation called the, 1-in-60 rule. The 1 in 60 rule states that for every 1 degree a plane veers off its course, it misses its target destination by 1 mile for every 60 miles you fly. This means that the further you travel, the further you are from your destination.

If you flew from Los Angeles to Miami but were just 1 degree off…you could end up in Georgia…or in the Atlantic Ocean. If you decided to fly to the moon, and you were off your course just one degree-you'd miss the moon by 4,169 miles (nearly twice the diameter of the moon).

Over time, a mere one-degree changes everything!

2. ONE CALL: THE $250 MILLION LESSON

Several years ago, the wrestler hulk hogan received a phone call from his agent and was pitched a few products to choose from to endorse. Out of the options to endorse, The Hulk chose what became, “the Hulkamania Meatball Maker.” Do you own a Hulkamania Meatball Maker? No…why? Because it was a huge flop.

Hulk Hogan’s agent took the product that he passed on and gave it to his other client. A former boxer by the name of…George Foreman. With over 100 million units sold, the ‘George Foreman Grill has made George well over 250 million dollars!

One phone call would prove to turn into the biggest financial regret for one person, and the most lucrative call for another person.

One call…a small change, dramatically altered the financial outcomes of these two people.

3. ONE SECOND: THE UNDERWATER HIGHWAY

Several years ago, Hibernian Atlantic was building an undersea fiberoptic cable that to stretch from New York to London. The single purpose of this engineering feat was to allow computers to complete financial transactions 5 milliseconds quicker than their competitors. To a computer 5 milliseconds is an eternity.

Less than one second was worth all the effort to build an underwater communication tool. Think about all the effort, money, and time it would take. But the Law of the Small is a reminder that small strategic changes are often worth all the effort it may take to produce a better outcome.

Your turn.

YOU AND THE LAW OF THE SMALL

Think about how the Law of the Small impacts your service by thinking about these three questions:

1.  What 1 degree service corrections do you could change that would positively alter the trajectory of your customer interactions?

2.  What strategic change could you make on your next customer call/interaction that could turn an upset customer, who is vowing to never do business with us again, into a brand advocate?

3.  What time saving change can you or your department make that would be a strategic change to positively alter outcomes with our customers?

Ultimately, the Law of the Small is it’s about 1 person: you!

You can provide greater service by making a few small strategic changes. These one-degree adjustments can help you serve at the highest level and deliver exceptional service without exception.

That’s the Law of the Small!

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