Back in 2014, Tony and Jan Jenkinson were ‘fined’ £100 by the Broadway Hotel in Blackpool after they wrote a damning review about it on TripAdvisor. After their stay, the couple found that their credit card had been debited, as the hotel had a ‘no bad review policy’ included in its terms and conditions.

Whether it was pressure from bad press, or genuine reflection, the hotel soon learned its lesson and as well as refunding the £100, they changed their policy.

We all make mistakes, but the key is that in business you will only ever make continuous improvements by noticing and correcting mistakes (i.e. anything less than 100%).

Whenever you set out to do something new, or introduce a new system of doing something, you will always have to start with an element of guesswork or estimation around what 100% means. Where a lot of businesses fail is that they do not know the ‘as is’ to measure against to drive to that 100%, so it’s a few steps forward but also a few back.

You are looking out for places where 100% is not being met consistently and finding a way to make sure it is. There could be a whole range of solutions to the problems but the key is that you, as the owner or manager of the system, learn the lessons and take appropriate action.

Friction in business costs money in the same way that inefficiency does, so learning what causes these things is essential to being able to grow your business.

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