Let’s face it. Rework is annoying, exhausting, and expensive.

It’s frustrating fixing other people’s mistakes, and can seriously drain your momentum. And it’s literally taking money from your bottom line.

There is a tiny silver lining, though. If you boil it down, rework is happens when you didn’t help your customer make progress. There’s enough trust that your customer is willing to give you a second chance, instead of just firing you on the spot. Win, I guess.

So, here’s the thing; the symptoms of rework are really easy to spot, so that’s where most people attack the problem. They spend thousands on QA, fancy software tools, creating checklists, or asking for client feedback on how to improve their process/product. But, treating symptoms rarely fixes the root cause.

Strategically, resolving rework requires you understand the big picture progress your client is trying to make, and making sure your processes and systems are in line with that. Job-aligned processes and systems resolve a lot of these issues, and build a launchpad for the tactical stuff you can do.

Intercom is a customer messaging platform that helps businesses communicate with their customers. They had a massive amount of rework and customer churn that stemmed from their confusing onboarding process. At first they tried to treat symptoms, which didn’t work.

When Des Traynor finally managed to turn the issue around, it wasn’t because he implemented QA measures, or did more “how can we make it better” research. It was because he figured out what the customer’s job was and innovated his company’s onboarding process around that.

Instead of having customers choose from a list of features and specifications to set up their system, they focused on the customer’s jobs to be done, and guided the customer through the setup process so they could get the progress they were looking for. They also made educational resources, such as tutorials and best practices, to help customers get up and running quickly.

Intercom’s jobs-focused innovation reduced customer rework and increased customer satisfaction and profitability as well.

Rework is a fact of life for marketing agencies. But it doesn’t have to be a negative. By understanding the root causes of rework and implementing the right processes and systems, you can reduce rework and increase your profitability.

Let’s have a conversation about how this applies to you and your agency. Schedule an appointment here or reach out to zac@homericconsulting.com.