The craft work you do requires paying attention to hundreds of little details. Nobody’s perfect, but competent contracting companies make relatively few mistakes when it comes to working with the tools of their trade. What’s more likely to go wrong are communications breakdowns that lead to problems in the field.
A well-known saying in the construction industry goes: “Measure twice, cut once.” It takes very little extra effort to measure twice. However, it’s very costly in material and labor to cut something to the wrong length and have to do it all over again. Measuring twice has its counterpart when it comes to business communications as well.
A manufacturing company in the plumbing industry did a study several years ago of its order fulfillment procedures, and discovered that it took an average of seven phone calls to correct every mistake made in the ordering process.
Seven!
Think of your own experience trying to straighten out goof-ups in your everyday business or personal transactions. Seven phone calls don’t sound out of the ordinary, does it?
It is a drain on productivity to chase around like that, and this just pertains to office staff wasting their time. Sometimes the mistake results in jobsite downtime and having to return something purchased. Also, factor in lost opportunity cost. That is, the time and effort your people put into correcting a mistake is not available for doing more productive work that relates to attracting new business or servicing customers.