Satisfaction Guaranteed
I attended a two day conference this week, and for the first time in a long time, I was pleased with the content, the speakers and panelists, the questions, the answers, and most importantly, the audience. That almost never happens. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I was this satisfied.
That got me thinking. If every meeting is “satisfaction guaranteed”, what would we do differently to ensure we lived up to that?
The first thing we’d do is look at that meeting from the perspective of the participants. If their satisfaction is what we’re guaranteeing, we certainly aren’t going to assume that we have the exclusive clue as to what will please them.
The second thing we’d do is hold the agenda, the topics, the presenters, and the participants to a much higher standard than we would otherwise. Good enough wouldn’t be acceptable if we have to meet the standard of “satisfaction guaranteed”.
The third thing we’d do is accelerate our learning process and put sensors around the organization that would feed back to us the satisfiers and dissatisfiers for those individuals most likely to participate in our meetings. At times, we’d have to make assumptions, but those assumptions would be based on some experiential evidence and a broad net of intelligence, and guesswork wouldn’t be tolerated.
The fourth thing we’d do is adjust any specific component of the meeting if we have any inkling that the customer isn’t satisfied. We could not risk continuing down a dissatisfying path if satisfaction is truly guaranteed.
And finally, we’d emphasize big time communications – creating and delivering an effective message and thinking about that message before delivery from the perspective of those participants that deserve satisfaction.
I wonder what staff meetings would look like and how long they’d be if satisfaction was guaranteed?
I wonder what planning sessions would entail and who would be presenting at those sessions if satisfaction was guaranteed?
I wonder what preparation would be done and what specifically would be delivered at a decision brief if satisfaction was guaranteed?
I’d like to try this.
It could very well be bureaucracy smashing!
Or, at the least, it could create greater meaning in the bulk of today’s meetings that leave most participants wondering if anything was accomplished.