Focus on the symptoms

When I was first learning to become a mechanic years ago the master mechanic at our shop taught me a valuable lesson.

He told me “Don’t listen to what the customer thinks is the fix, focus on the symptoms of the problem they are trying to describe.”

He gave me an example so I could better understand.  What would happen is that a customer would burst into our shop demanding an alignment for their car because the steering wheel would vibrate at highway speeds.

The issue was that an alignment won’t fix that problem.  Actually fixing this problem requires wheels on the car to be properly balanced.  So if we did an alignment the customer would be upset because their car would still be broken.

It’s not the customers job to diagnose the problem.  It’s the customers job to describe the problem and OUR job to fix it.  As such, we need to focus on the symptoms NOT their diagnosis because we need to know what the real problem is so we can fix it properly.

 

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Your firm needs an expert to turn symptoms into a solution.  My question for you is, what symptoms is your firm currently experiencing?

The symptoms hold the key to fixing your problem.

You can’t build an effective solution unless you know the real problem.

 

Talk soon,
Sean

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