If there is one problem I see over and over when talking to business leaders, it’s the “lack of Consistency.” It doesn’t really matter what area of the business we are talking about, if they don’t have consistency, they can’t be efficient and they certainly can’t be Customer Obsessed or deliver a Customer Experience their customer desires. Consistency is the single core ingredient, magic dust as I call it, to being Customer Obsessed and ultimately being successful as an organization.
I get the opportunity to speak to thousands of leaders throughout the year and regardless of where they are struggling, the underlying cause is usually the lack of consistency. It could be in their processes, or in their sales groups, or in product delivery, or even in how they are delivering their customer experience. Wherever they are struggling, you can generally find a lack of consistency.
If the “lack of Consistency” is the killer of all things in a business, the art of “being Consistent” is the Golden Ticket for any business.
Years ago, when we wrote our first book, we came up with a catchy phrase which was incredibly simple and everyone understood. And it is more relevant today than when we first came up with it. This one phrase not only describes why customers leave but why employees leave as well. It is also the root cause of why employees get frustrated and deliver a less than desirable customer experience. It is the core cause of why any organization can’t become Customer Obsessed…and the core solution that helps companies to be Customer Obsessed so they can become “REMARK”able. The “catchy” phrase is…
Random Acts of Excellence and Chaos causes Customer (and employee) Defection…customers (and employees) leaving and choosing to work with someone else.
Random Acts (good or bad) is simply another way to say an organization has a “lack of consistency.” When we don’t give our customers (and employees) consistent experiences, they get incredibly frustrated to the point where they choose (and want) to leave. This applies equally to employees as it does for customers. If we ask our employees to do certain things and then change what we want them to do, regularly, they get frustrated and can’t perform at their very best…then they leave. Random acts simply drive customers and employees away.
Let me dissect this phrase a bit more. “Random Acts” simply means things happen in an inconsistent way…you never know what you’re going to get. Kind of like what Tom Hanks said in Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” While this might be great for a box of chocolates, it’s a disaster for an organization and their customers. “Excellence and Chaos” refer to the highs and lows of an experience. For example, if one day you go into a business and the person greeting you is super excited and happy to see you, this is “excellence.” But if you go in tomorrow and you get someone who is cranky, miserable, and annoyed you are there, this is “chaos.” Both are bad…the customer wants consistency, not the unknown. “Customer Defection” is easy, it simply means they aren’t happy with either your ups or your downs, so they leave and go somewhere they think will treat them more consistently.
Creating “Consistency” and eliminating “Random Acts” is one of the most important roles a leader can provide to their customers (and employees) in any organization.
If “consistency” is the holy grail for the success of any organization, the key question then becomes, “How do you create it?” How does an organization ensure they are being consistent in all aspects of their business, from processes to their customer experience? How do all the employees understand what consistency means and what they should do to deliver this internally and externally? No matter how much leaders might talk about how great this would be to have, to make it happen, it comes down to just one word…
TRAINING…it’s the one thing every organization must do to eliminate the “lack of consistency” and get everyone doing the same things the same way in every department…every day.
Training is one of the words that is often missing in many organizations today. When I talk to leaders, they all want to do more training. Then they usually tell me they “just don’t have the budget and time right now to do it…we’ll get to it in the future.” I get that…everyone seems to have less time in their day today and too many priorities. Everyone has so much to do that training gets pushed down the list so far it never happens.
The only way to be a Customer Obsessed organization and become “REMARK”able is to train your employees how to do it…consistently and every day. Our human nature wires us with the desire to learn…and to learn is to grow. When employees aren’t trained the way you want, they can’t do what you want them to do when it comes to interacting and supporting your customers. They can only do what they have learned and delivered in their past. Employees actually want to do the right thing and serve the customer in a way that makes them happy. This desire is not the issue…the lack of training so they can consistently do it is the issue.
Employees are usually motivated to do the right thing…the right thing in their own mind. Unfortunately, all employees don’t think the same way so the “right thing” is always different from one employee to the next.
What should you do, as a leader, when your employee is trying to do the right thing and it really isn’t the right thing? This is a tough situation. The normal response from the employee is, “I did what I thought was the right thing to do because I haven’t been “trained” any other way…I did what I thought was best for the customer at this point in time.” How do you argue with this response…you can’t? You, as a leader are trapped. If you say what they did was wrong you can’t stand on any firm ground because you haven’t trained them in the way you want them to act.
When it comes to Customer Obsession, training isn’t something nice to have, it is absolutely required! Employees have to be trained so they can be consistent, day in and day out, in every department, for how they should act and how they should deliver an awesome experience to their customer. They also have to be trained to keep their promises and find ways to consistently help their customers. It all comes down to training.
When employees are trained on what they should be doing (and saying) to the customer with every interaction, you CREATE CONSISTENCY. You get to the holy grail of delivering a consistent and repeatable customer experience to your customers. Your employees start acting in unison where they can deliver exactly what you desire to be delivered…every time.
Training is the only way to create consistency when it comes to being Customer Obsessed.
Here's the Formula...
A training program needs to be created by developing the “desired customer response” you want to have from your customer and then designing exactly “how you want to deliver” this to your customer. It starts with the end in mind…what do we want the customer to feel when we interact with them? What do we want the customer to say when we interact with them? When we know the outcomes we desire, we can create the processes and scripts needed to create these outcomes. This isn’t any different than any other aspect of your business, but it takes special attention and focus to create it for your customers.
For example, think of a process you use in your business…whether it is to create a product or deliver a service. There has to be a uniform “way of doing it” if you want to achieve the desired result. There isn’t any randomness in this operation. And if there is, it is soon found out because the desired outcome isn’t what you wanted. Customer Obsession and the experiences you deliver to get there acts exactly the same way.
To get the desired customer experience you want the customer to feel and enjoy, every employee needs to follow the process designed to achieve this desired outcome. Anything less and you will not get the desired results.
The solution is usually straight forward, but takes focus, commitment, and training. This is the number one reason I see organizations bail out on their journey of being Customer Obsessed. They lack focus…simply telling their employees to deliver a great experience…but the employees don’t know what this means. They don’t have the commitment from the top leadership team in the organization…so employees think this is the “flavor of the month” and ignore it, hoping it will go away soon. Without training…there isn’t anything formal that helps them understand and see what exactly they should be delivering to their customers with each interaction.
When you have these 3 ingredients you are well on your way to being Customer Obsessed…and becoming “REMARK”able. It’s really this simple. The OPPORTUNITY is to take control of these three ingredients. The opportunity is in front of you because the statistics show that approximately 75% of the companies will NOT execute these 3 ingredients. But for those who do focus on these 3 ingredients, they will dominate in their market. They will own the top spot in their industry. And they will be the envy of all their competitors. Is that going to be you?
What To Do Next...
If this sparked some interest in you, as a leader, and gave you some inspiration to want to take advantage of this incredible opportunity, congratulations. You are in the top percentage of companies who will become completely differentiated from your competitors. The journey has begun…
Everything starts with understanding where you are, so you know what you need to do to get where you want. Making an honest assessment of where you are is always the start to change. I’ve given you some insight into how you can figure this out inside your own organization to better understand where you are today. This is the first (and most) critical step to getting a handle on building more trust and not taking it for granted. Once you understand where you are, the next big step is to get educated on what you need to do to move from where you are to where you want to be.
If you’re not sure now to make this all happen or get started, I’m happy to help you out with this if you need a boost. Lots of ways to do this so that you can run with it going forward. Or if you just want to talk through it a bit more, let’s grab coffee (or lunch) sometime. The coffee (or lunch) is on you…the education and information is on me. My goal is to help save you TIME in the process if you are interested in being Customer Obsessed and becoming “REMARK”able in the process...which is my passion and goal for every company on the planet. Big goal…but it starts with one.
The only question that remains is, “Are you ready to be Customer Obsessed and become “REMARK”able?”
