I love small ideas with BIG impact

I’m now up to page 169 of Ideas Are Free and my dog-ear score is still at a 20%+ clip.

Ideas Are Free is the quintessential book on how to foster and leverage free ideas from employees. It’s a must read for any project manager responsible for delivering programs designed to increase sales, increase productivity, increase customer satisfaction, and increase company employee morale. Read it today. Use it tomorrow.

The following story is a brilliant example of how a small idea can have a big impact.

SETUP
Kacey Fine Furniture (Denver, CO), initiated an Ideas Campaign with their employees to develop ideas on how to reduce their 10% furniture return rate. An assistant truck driver submitted a novel idea after noticing a trend developing for why customers were not happy with their just-delivered furniture.

EXCERPT (slightly abridged)
“The assistant truck driver realized that the reason the furniture looked more attractive in the showroom was that it was arranged by professionals. His idea was to give the company’s nineteen truck drivers and their assistants some of the same training in interior decorating that was given to the salespeople.

The idea was given the go-ahead, and the truck drivers and their assistants were given the training.

Now, when delivering a sofa, for example, the delivery crew does not simply ask, “Where do you want it, lady?” Instead, before bringing it in, they find out why the customer bought the new furniture, visit the room it will go in, and look for appropriate accessories.

Together with the customer, they develop a plan. When the crew retrieves the sofa from the truck, they are able to position it nicely and accessorize it stylishly. With their decorating help and willingness to please, these truck drivers greatly improve the chances that customers will like their new furniture and generate considerable word-of-mouth advertising.

The other furniture companies in the area contract out the delivery process. Their delivery people still knock on the door and ask, “Lady, where do you want it?”

It is worth nothing that the idea of giving drivers training in interior decorating could only have been successful if it had come from a driver. Imagine the response from the drivers if the idea had come from management.”
(source: Ideas Are Free, pgs 163, 164)