99.9% Pure

Yes!  Cleaning out an old notebook a few weeks ago I came across an article I'd save during my real estate business days......ya know the kind.....the motivating, the sayings you stick on your bathroom mirror to stare at you everyday, the high-5's?!  Well, this is out there on the net in several versions, but this was before the net and haven't a clue where I saw it in print, so unfortunately cannot credit.  It was enlightening for me, and though it's been tucked away for a long time, I've not forgotten the impact as a business owner/person I felt when I read it.

"Some business owners accept a certain degree of tolerable defects in their products or services, mistakes do happen.  The industry accepted percentage of tolerance for errors is between 1-5%.  Who wouldn't be proud of a business with a 99.9% success rate?

But too often, 99.9% satisfaction is not good enough. Yes, we know there are always going to be the customers we can never never make happy, it's not us, it's them.

Here's some perspective to keep in mind when setting business goals for your company if the results were done correctly "only" 99.9% of the time:
• Unsafe landings at O'Hare International Airport every day - 2
• Lost pieces of mail by the US Postal Service, hourly = 16,000
• Incorrect drug prescriptions yearly = 20,000
• Incorrect surgical procedures every week = 500
• Money deducted by banks from wrong accounts hourly = 22,000

• Number of phone calls misplaced by telecommunication services every minute =1,314

• 315 entries in Websters dictionary will be misspelled 
• 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily

So if you are among the 0.1% the error or defect impacts you 100%.  As business owners we can never compromise our goals of customer satisfaction and striving for 100%.  Our customers should never expect anything less.