Less is More: Prioritization and Business

“Resist the urge to cover everything.” That was one of the points I highlighted in our latest Providing Excellent Customer Support blog posts–that in the customer support world, there is pressure to try and be everywhere: email, phone, chat, Twitter, FB Messenger, and more. Instead of doing a mediocre job on all of them, do the two that make the most sense for your business and customers–and do them well.

That theme doesn’t just apply to what support channels you cover, or how many social media platforms you engage for your marketing efforts.

This “less is more” sense is a theme that emerges time and time again, in many of our business decisions.

Steve McLeod recently made us prioritize which customer feedback we act on when building our products. Because we can’t act on all feedback, immediately, all the time.

Bart Turczynski covered how to attract top quality talent. We want to attract the right people, rather than simply attract a large quantity of resumes.

Robin Warren wrote about the value of daily standups, and how they’re not created to waste people’s time with endless status updates.

Again and again we have to protect ourselves from tackling too much, experiencing diminishing results as we stretch ourselves too thin.

It’s so easy to take on too much, and harder to unload what we’ve stretched ourselves too once we’ve taken responsibilities on.

Where do you struggle to prioritize your efforts, or focus your time? Have any tips to keep others from spreading themselves or their teams too thin? We’d love to hear from you.