Read my articles and books and get to know me even a little and you’ll learn I’m a systems-person, on top of being fairly intuitive.
I admire businesses that figure out how to deliver value across time and space and cultures, especially enterprises that are in traditional “service” fields.
McDonald’s is one such business that has done a spectacular job of providing substantially the same burgers and cleanliness and friendly customer service across more than half a century and around the globe.
And when I worked for an experimental division of that company, named after founder Ray Kroc, I learned how to do things the McDonald’s way, which is a discipline as much as it is a skill.
So, when I went on to become a collector, a salesperson, and a manager of and consultant for these functions along with customer service, I saw the merit in using SCRIPTS, patterned talks that are almost as predictable as how you’re supposed to make a hamburger or clean a counter top.
Why leave the cooking of a meal to chance when you can plan and control its quality nearly every time?
Ditto for conversations. If your intention is to communicate clearly, to sell, or to service, why permit customer outcomes to be random affairs when we can hit the mark, selling and satisfying, with uncanny accuracy?
At this point in my career I am responsible for crafting call paths that have been employed nearly as many times as McDonald’s has sold burgers. I suppose that’s why I’m particularly concerned when scripts sound dumb, when they fail.
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