In business (and in life), it’s easy to ignore or forget about what’s important and instead get distracted by what’s urgent at the time.
While this may seem like a distinction without a difference, it’s probably not too hard for you to recall scenarios in the past where you got distracted by something that arose unexpectedly and didn’t get around to completing an essential task.
These urgent, unexpected distractions happen to all of us — and they can cause us to lose sight of the issues and challenges that have the biggest impact on our business’s bottom line. Maybe you’ve given up on ever finding a solution.
As an example, let’s talk about soggy french fries…
A technology provider partner recently shared a story with us about a restaurant chain that was exploring different UCaaS solutions. In the process, they stumbled upon a solution to an even larger problem.
From Soggy to Solution: A Case Study
The provider asked the restaurant chain owners a question they weren’t expecting from their VoIP guy:
“What is the biggest problem facing your company today?”
Interesting question — and one that doesn’t get asked nearly often enough.
Somewhere amidst the confused stares, an answer emerged:
“Soggy french fries!”
There was a recurring complaint from customers who placed orders for pickup that by the time they got to the restaurant and picked up their food, the fries were already soggy.
At this point, it would have been easy for the provider to shrug and say, “Well that sucks” — then quickly steer the conversation back to UCaaS.
After all, who would expect a technology provider to solve the problem of soggy french fries?
Our answer:
You should expect your technology providers to solve for every recurring business problem — no matter how unrelated it may seem.
In a world full of information, technology and applications, the odds are good that there’s a creative solution to the problems you’re experiencing. You just need to find vendors who can act as a true business partner.
But wait, you may be wondering, how did technology solve for soggy french fries?
We’re glad you asked.
It turns out that most of the pickup orders were coming from a mobile app the company had already developed. For the rest of the orders, the restaurant staff was asking for the cell phone number of whoever would be picking the order up.
With this in mind, the technology solution provider looked into the point-of-sales API system the chain was using and found that custom triggers could be created for when different parts of an order should be prepared.
The development team created a “geo-fence” around a restaurant, placed an order and discovered that when the cell phone listed on the order entered that geo-fence, the point-of-sales system could be triggered to drop the french fries at that time, rather than when the rest of the order was prepared.
Since french fries cook so quickly, they would still be done by the time the customer came inside, identified themself and paid for the order.
Voila! Fresh french fries for everybody.
The Takeaway
While this might be more information than you wanted to know about the restaurant business, we think an important lesson emerges from this case study.
All it took was for one creative solution provider to ask the right question and address the real underlying problem, rather than focus solely on what they were looking to sell. These are the types of technology partners that companies should be looking for — and the types of solutions they should be demanding.
Most problems can be addressed with technology in today’s business landscape, and business owners can’t be expected to be experts in running their business and staying up-to-date on all of the potential solutions that exist.
That’s where finding the right technology partner comes into play.
So now it’s your turn:
Where are the “soggy fries” at your company? Do you have a running list of recurring business problems that you need solutions for?
Find partners who are asking the right questions rather than just telling you what they can fix. Demand more from your vendors when it comes to addressing your problems.
Contact us to experience the Wired Networks difference.
