Quantity vs. Quality

by Joey St. John

Have you ever been asked at checkout if you have a rewards card, and if you don’t would you like one? It’s virtually impossible to escape that question these days if you purchase anything from anywhere. Now I’m not going to complain about that practice because as a veteran of the retail industry, I’ve seen the results that can come from that simple procedure. What I really want to talk about is the question of quantity versus quality.

Ask 100 people to choose between those two words and an overwhelming number will invariably choose quality. It’s interesting that, using the example above, rarely you come across someone at checkout who really delivers a quality pitch for the “rewards” program. Their results come from sheer quantity in that everyone must be asked as a simple job requirement. As a customer you may say no 4-5 times over the course of many months, but one day you will suddenly say “yes, I’d like one”. That decision will be nothing more than a result of being asked over and over again and nothing to do with how masterfully the question was delivered.

Now, I don’t mean to insinuate that quality doesn’t matter. However, it seems to be flawed logic to go straight to that and ignore the fact that to get better at anything we have to repeat it over and over again. This begins when we try to take our first steps as a child and continues throughout the rest of our lives. Imagine what we would look like as a society if the quality of our first steps was the gauge we used to decide if it was worth trying again. Before you can even worry about how good you are at something you have to simply be willing to do it enough times to appropriately measure.

To wrap this up let’s try to put a business perspective on this. Though you are hopefully now considering how this applies to your business activity, I want to specifically relate it to a hiring process. We give so much thought to hiring quality people, as we should. However, have you taken the time to identify what simple little things you need employees to show a willingness to do on the way to gauging the quality of your hiring decision. By defining those things and simply asking them to do it exactly as you instruct, you create an environment where you both achieve results as a result of repetition, and identify quality as better results come in for those who begin to blossom. So my answer to that question will always be quantity because I understand that is the only true path to quality.

Now, I’d love to be a fly on the wall the next time you’re asked about a rewards card.

Joey St. John
VP of Operations
JumpBunch

Learn more about JumpBunch at topfranchises.franchisebusinessreview.com.

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