Consistency

The key to exceptional business results is consistency. If you do nothing else, be consistent.  Consistency doesn’t mean being the best at something, or providing the highest quality, it means providing predictable, reliable results to the customer or client every time you do business with them.

The E-Myth is an excellent book by Michael Gerber. One of the key points of the book is that in order to run a successful business you really need to focus on the systems within that business. By creating or improving existing systems within your business you can provide a better product/service and also provide consistency to the customer. The objective is that each time a customer comes to your business they will get the same great service/product which makes them feel like they are in control of the relationship.

Consistency is what franchises are built around. McDonald’s pioneered and embodies this idea. When you walk into a McDonald’s anywhere in the world, you know exactly what you are going to get when you order a quarter pounder, right down to the exact ingredients, quantities, and order of toppings.

Consistency is achieved by doing the same thing in the same way so it produces exactly the same result each and every time you do it. Practice owners need to clearly identify the elements that make up consistency in their practice. The only way to get consistency and to achieve the results you want is to develop procedures that will give you consistent results.

Consistency creates the reputation that your practice will be built on, and without consistency you will constantly be learning from mistakes that you can’t afford to make and clients will leave you without giving you any indication as to why.