Detailed account of the story
On an ordinary day, there was a boy who earned his living by mowing lawns for others. With a serious attitude towards work in his heart, he dialed Mrs. Chen's phone number. As soon as the call was connected, the boy politely and enthusiastically asked, "Mrs. Chen, do you need lawn mowing service now?" Mrs. Chen responded gently but firmly on the phone, "No, thanks. I've already hired a lawn mower."
However, the boy didn't give up on the communication. Then he said, "Mrs. Chen, besides mowing the lawn, I can also help you pull out the weeds in the flower beds that spoil the view." Mrs. Chen still replied unhurriedly, "The lawn mower I hired has already done this job well." The boy was not discouraged and continued to introduce his services, "Well, I can also mow the grass around the lawn and the walkways neatly." Mrs. Chen still gave the same reply, "The person I hired has already done all these. Thank you, but I don't need a new lawn mower for now." Hearing such a response, the boy politely hung up the phone.
At this time, the boy's roommate asked him with a puzzled look on his face, "Aren't you the one who does the lawn - mowing job at Mrs. Chen's? Why do you still need to make this call?" The boy said calmly and seriously, "I just want to find out how well I'm actually doing my job at Mrs. Chen's."
Management ideas in the casecontain; embody; imply
Focus on customers
This seemingly simple story actually deeply reflects the extremely important idea of "customer focus" in the ISO quality management system. In business activities or daily work, customers are like the compass for our work. We are often busy in our own work rhythm and it's difficult to clearly know the actual effect of our work. Just like this grass - cutting boy, if he doesn't take the initiative to ask Mrs. Chen for her opinion, he may never know what he has done well and what still needs improvement. By continuously inquiring about customers' evaluations, we can clearly see our strengths and weaknesses as if we were holding an accurate map. Once we know our strengths, we can continue to carry them forward and make our advantages more obvious; once we understand our weaknesses, we should make timely adjustments and improvements to enhance the work quality. Only in this way can we firmly win the hearts of customers and make them willing to choose our services or products all the time.
Continuous improvement
This is also a vivid example of the "continuous improvement" concept among the eight principles of quality management. In the workplace, many people tend to get stuck in a fixed work pattern, completing tasks in a routine manner every day and thinking that as long as there are no mistakes, everything is fine. However, this grass - cutting boy is different. He actively seeks feedback in order to continuously improve his work. Every one of our employees, regardless of their positions, should have such an awareness. For example, workers on the production line can think about how to improve the production efficiency and quality of products; office workers can consider how to optimize work processes and improve work efficiency. Only when each person makes continuous improvements in combination with their own positions can the entire team or enterprise continue to move forward.
Promotion of Total Quality Management
Many people think that making customers satisfied is only the job of marketers. But this story tells us that all employees can make customers satisfied. For marketers, making customers satisfied can gain highly loyal customers. These loyal customers will continuously purchase products or services and also promote the enterprise by word - of - mouth. And for employees in various functional departments, we also have our own "customers", that is, the objects of our services. For example, the finance department provides financial support for other departments, so other departments are the service objects of the finance department; the logistics department provides logistics support for all employees, so all employees are the service objects of the logistics department. Only by constantly paying attention to the needs and feelings of these "customers" and continuously improving the work quality can we achieve total quality management.
Effective communication
In life and work, it is very difficult for a person to get a fair and objective evaluation. Most of the time, it is hard for us to see our own problems clearly, and the evaluations from people around us may also be subjective. This story provides us with an innovative way of communication. The grass - cutting boy cleverly obtained the customer's true evaluation through a seemingly simple way of making a phone call. In work, we should also learn to obtain feedback through effective communication. For example, we can communicate with colleagues and customers regularly and organize feedback meetings, so as to understand our work situation more accurately.
Perfect quality management
The boy's proactive service awareness is worthy of everyone's learning. In many cases, we are used to dealing with problems passively, only solving them after they appear, just like "mending the fold after the sheep have been stolen". However, this approach often causes certain losses. The boy has created a model of actively searching for problems and hidden dangers, and then solving and preventing problems, that is, "preventing troubles before they happen". In quality management, we should pursue this perfect model. For example, enterprises can conduct regular quality inspections on products to discover potential quality problems in advance; train employees to improve their quality awareness and avoid the occurrence of problems. Only in this way can we continuously improve work quality and achieve perfect quality management.