My new favorite gas station is very convenient- easy freeway access, the best pricing and I never have to wait for a pump. A few months ago, they made a change that is counterintuitive in today’s environment. They changed from giving the option to have a receipt printed to getting one whether you want it or not. Almost every time I pull up, there is a receipt from the last customer hanging out of the machine. I don’t know why the change was made, but can only speculate it was an oversight when other changes were made. And while a minor change, the cost of business is going up because more receipts are getting printed and customers now must wait for receipts to print that they don’t want.
Changes like these happen in business frequently. They are small, likely unintended, but causes the business to take a small step back. In isolation it is no big deal. The thing is, these types of changes are typically not a one off. They tend to accumulate. A bunch of small changes that become a bigger problem when added together. How do you make sure that the changes you make in your business make sense?