The 6% goal

Would a 6% increase in your results be worth implementing a new feature? It depends.

One of my service organizations is looking at implementing a new automated SMS/text system to remind clients of appointments.

Their situation:

• They receive some funding for each completed appointment.

• A missed appointment has the same cost as a completed one, because the staff time simply goes unused.

They have an “appointments kept” rate of 80%.

They have a goal to get that number up to 85%.

That's an increase of just 6.25%.

Besides the obvious benefit to their mission (by serving more people), the additional funding from that increase would be far more than the cost of implementing this SMS program.

Is it guaranteed to work? Nothing is, you know.

But 6% seems very doable, and it will clearly pay for itself.

This, my friends, is how you take reasonable steps forward.

It starts, as do so many good things, with defining a goal.

What’s your next goal?

All the best,
A.