Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

OK, so in thinking how the hugely successful grocery retailers use speed to kill off the competition, I couldn't help nicking the title from a Russ Meyer film.

But it will do until a better title comes along.

Anyway. I've been working with an organisation on how to improve their products, the service they provide to their customers, and how they engage their people. One of the techniques I've used is to introduce them to my "Innovation Provocations". These are a series of questions, challenges and thought provoking statements introduced randomly into the idea process in order to break normal patterns of thinking.

For example - "How could we make this faster"? "How would we do it if we were starting over again"? "How would change it if we had to give it away for free"?

The point is that you can apply these Innovation Provocations to ANY situation, not just the obviously "creative" situations like coming up with ideas for marketing and branding. One that really worked was "How can we make it faster?" - and that was in a discussion about training and development.

But examples abound in the real world of how this particular Provocation has been used to solve problems. Think about your local supermarket.

How can customers be 'processed' quickly, once they have filled their trolley? Of course, they don't want to rush you through the store - not while there's a good chance you'll make plenty of additional or impulse purchases as you stroll round.

But once you have joined the queue at the checkout, it's in their interest (and frankly, ours too) to get your money and get you out as quickly as possible.

One of the (several) large grocery stores round here has recently changed its check-out procedures. And with the "How can we make it faster?" thought in mind, I noticed that several of the changes seem tailor-made to make the transaction as fast as possible. Having spoken to a "company insider", my suspicions were confirmed.

Firstly, the checkout itself is much longer than before - it now takes almost a full shop from the largest trolley. In addition, the check-out operator no longer waits to say "good morning - can I help you pack?". As soon as the shopping hits their end, away they go!

Secondly, they no longer ask - during the payment stage - "Would you like cashback"? It's still available, but only if you ask. I'm sure this speeds up each transaction by just a few seconds, but multiplied out it must make a difference. (I'm sure it also leaves cash in their bank overnight rather than mine, but that may be an old-fashioned thought that has no reality to the actualite of modern banking?).

And here's the killer - if you do ask for cash, they don't ask you to sign for it any more. Why not? Well, I can only imagine that they did a test and found that the risk of fraud was so low that they could happily drop that stage and speed up the transaction by another few, vital seconds.

So ask yourself - what could you speed up. What ideas might that generate. And once you've done that, ask "What could we slow down?"

Speed is one thing, but you'll get more benefit personally - and for your team and organisation - by slowing down.