Easier for Whom?

Why we need to balance the trade-offs that come with making things “easier”.

Last week I was on vacation with my family and we stayed at a hotel in the Myrtle Beach area. As per usual, at check-in, we were given 2 keycards to open the exterior doors and the door to our room. However, after using the keycards only a handful of times, they both stopped working.

While slightly inconvenient, it wasn't a big deal, so I went to the front desk to request replacement keycards. The woman at the front desk was happy to get me new cards, but commented something along the lines of "All of the keycard readers are really old and don't work well. We end up having to give new keycards for almost every guest a few times during their stay."

Given the solution appeared, at least to me, to be replacing the keycard readers on the doors, I asked why they hadn't done that yet (especially if this problem was as common as it was being represented).

The response was "It's just easier this way."

I can't help but ask the question to myself, "Easier for whom?"

Certainly not for the customers of that hotel.

But it got me thinking.

Often, we make decisions that result in something being easier - but I'm not sure we pause long enough and think about who we are making it easier for.

Perhaps a change to your customer service process makes it faster to analyze customer satisfaction results. But this change is making it easier on those building and reading the reports. Not the customers who need support.

Similarly, maybe you could change your lead generation process such that potential interested clients fill out an 8-field form on your website. This would certainly make it easier for your sales team to have the information they need to follow up on the leads. But this adds significant friction on the end of the potential client - definitely not easier for them.

So go ahead, make things easier for your customers.

Make them easier for your internal teams.

Make things easier for yourself.

Just recognize that sometimes making things easier for one group will make them harder on another.

So pause and ask: "Easier for whom?"

(Note - It's possible that grammatically, this question should be "Easier for who?". I tried to brush up on who vs whom, but this grammar rule continues to be elusive to my brain)

Thanks for spending time with me in my workshop,

Eric