Why “Checking It Twice” Is a Good Idea

Monday Morning Match is a quick post – maybe a quote, inspirational story or idea – intended to spark some motivation inside each of you so your week gets off to a fantastic start on Monday morning.

This past weekend, I traveled around the city of Columbus and delivered small Christmas gifts to my clients from the last few years. While a majority of them were home, a few others were not so I had to make the decision to leave these gift bags on their doorstep or in between their storm door and front door, or bring them home with me to be delivered after the holiday to insure they were received by the intended party and not just donated to some “porch pirate’s” holiday haul.

I couldn’t get to all of the houses on Saturday so I left a few on my “list” for Sunday delivery. One of the places I still had to go was to a home about 30 miles Northwest of Columbus so I jumped in the car for the last of my deliveries. Traffic wasn’t as busy as I had expected just two days before Christmas but I purposefully avoided the rout that would take me past one of the larger malls in the area. As I pulled onto the expressway to Marysville, I glanced in the rear view mirror and thought to myself, “I didn’t take the remaining packages out of the car last night…did I?”

“No,” I confidently answered the voice in my head. “Why would I have done that? I knew I was going back out today to finish the job. There’s no reason I would have taken them out of the car.”

You know where this is going, don’t you?

I arrived at my destination, pulled into my client’s driveway, and strolled to the hatch back of my SUV, and found the empty boxes back there. After a brief sigh, I thought to myself, “Oh crap, someone stole my packages while I was as the gym this morning.” I quickly called home to ask my wife if she had moved the remaining packages from my car and she quickly replied, “No, silly. You brought the last few bags inside last night when you got back. They are sitting on the dining room table.” That was the moment I knew what I was writing about in today’s Monday Morning Match.

Making a List and Checking It Twice

I should have known better. I’ve been hearing the reminder in the song “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” since the week after Thanksgiving. It’s something every professional knows, right? We learn this as a grade school and are reminded of it every time we took a quiz or test. E-commerce has the reminder built in to any online ordering process.

“Measure twice; cut once.”

“Double check your answers”

“Please review your order before hitting the “Complete Order” button.”

It’s not about “second guessing” ourselves, it’s simply about taking that extra second to make sure our i’s have been dotted and our t’s have been crossed. We’ve all hit “send” on an email too quickly without attaching the item we referenced in the body of our message. If you’ve ever printed a document you created and found a typo after it was mailed, you’ve felt that twitch in your eye knowing that the mistake could have been avoided.

We are living (and serving) in an on-demand world. Our customers and clients want things when they want them but we must ensure that the products, services, and advice we are giving them are actually “what” they wanted. It’s factual. It’s professional. It’s what they ordered. It’s going to be something they will talk about, be proud of, want to come back for, and possibly even tell others about.

Think about what you’re saying. Listen clearly to what others are saying. If you need to clarify or ask for clarification, do it before you get into trouble. As coaching legend John Wooden said, “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”