Since 1992
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By Ross Cunningham
Chores. In our house, chores are a struggle. I’d love to say we have the picture perfect Norman Rockwell home running like a well-oiled machine, but it’s just not the truth. We have two dogs, a cat and a teenager. This house is often loud, and although it’s not filthy, it’s messier than we would like it to be 80 percent of the time. About a year ago, we decided to try to stay on top of it by investing in a Roomba.
For those who are unfamiliar, a Roomba is an automatic vacuum cleaner that recharges and runs on a timer. It roams the floor vacuuming. It is actually quite useful. Of course we have heard stories of cats riding a Roomba and horror stories of what happens when the Roomba runs over a mess in the middle of the night and spreads it all around the house.
Nevertheless, we decided to go ahead and take the leap. We had recently transitioned to hardwood floors and this seemed to be the perfect solution to the dust bunnies and outdoor dirt that magically find their way inside.
After a year or so, I am thrilled to say the Roomba experiment is a success. We even decided to name it Gram. This is in tribute to my mother-in-law who never stops cleaning. She is super efficient and is constantly in motion. There are certainly challenges. We schedule “Gram” to clean at 2 a.m. while we are sleeping, so we have to remember to empty “gram” in the morning. She won’t run when full. There are nights where “Gram” finds a quiet place to hide, under a couch, in a closet that was left open, etc. and we have a little family scavenger hunt. Overall, however, the sweeping chore has been reduced by 80 percent, with minimum periodic maintenance. I do that willingly, because it’s certainly easier than sweeping! This purchase made me want to be more involved in the chore.
I was at a conference recently for Maine Credit Unions, and the speaker asked the audience a simple question. “What have you done in the last three years to make it easier for a customer to do business with you?” This of course was referring to providing online banking services and better access to the credit union, but it can apply to any business.
Our world is changing daily, and if you have not made an improvement in the last three years, you will very quickly be out-paced by your competitors. My own wife figured out that we needed to do something different to make it easier to clean floors. So my question to you this month is what are you going to do to stay relevant and to be the business today’s consumer wants to do business with? We, at Watson Hill Consulting, are happy to work with you to bring you into today’s market. Just give us a call.
Ross Cunningham is the owner and principal consultant at Watson Hill Consulting in Lisbon Falls.
