I read an article recently around what happens when you focus on fixing the wrong things in your business or practice. This is why systems can help solve any problem. 

A large airport was trying to solve a customer service related problem. The problem according to customer feedback was the time passengers had to wait at the baggage carousel once their flight landed.

The airport, wanting to solve the problem, did a study and found that from landing, the luggage was taking on average about 15 to 16 minutes to arrive at the baggage claim area. Whereas the passengers who could comfortably get there in 3 to 5 minutes.

The steps of the process  were mapped out in great detail, and new machinery and technology was invested in (as well as serious 6 figure dollars invested) to reduce the time taken for luggage to get from the plane to the carousel.

 

The new investments showed promise, and they managed to save almost 20% of the transfer time, which for most processes would be a pretty good result.  But it still left a wait time of 7or 8 minutes, which still rated with poor reviews.

Very frustrating for the airport and especially so given they had invested so much money in the problem.

 

Enter the Systems Solution

The processes were reviewed and decided it was not physically possible to make the baggage transfer any faster. However, someone looked at the process and came up with a different question and approach – instead of speeding up the baggage “what if they could slow down the time it took for the actual passengers to get from the plane to the baggage area?”.

First response was yes, but then won’t that become a different issue for the passengers? A valid question but then they came up with an idea “what if we made the longer walk time more interesting – better shops, window views, cafes, artwork to view etc.. Etc..?”

The results?

• passenger wait time was reduced to less than a couple of minutes,
• passenger reviews were all positive about the amazing experience,
• the airport was able to significantly increase revenues from the shops and cafes,
• minimal new investment required.

A true win, win, win situation and that is before they even start to play with the marketing or improvements around those experiences.

 

That is what systems are all about – simple solutions to make business better. So the next time you go straight into solution mode (Common example -needing more leads to make your business grow) take a moment to map out the process and the system to look at whether there is a better, more cost efficient and easier way. I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised.