For those of you who aren’t baseball fans, this title might not mean much to you…it will become much clearer as you read on. In a nutshell, in baseball the “Rookie League” is the first stop for most major league baseball prospects that have recently been drafted…only the few top players skip playing in the Rookie Leagues. It’s where coaches get to further evaluate players to see their likelihood of success in the major league. And of course, MLB stands for Major League Baseball…the real “show” in baseball.
There is virtually no business leader on the planet that will admit in public that they don’t truly care about their customers…and then go on to claim give their customer’s lots of attention…no one. Yet the numbers tell us differently. In a recent study, 80% of the companies felt like they were giving their customer a great experience…but when their customers were asked, only 20% said they were receiving this great experience. With this big of a GAP between the dreaming going on with company leaders and the reality from their customers…something has to be happening (or not happening).
Why the huge gap from company perception and customer reality…it’s the difference between the Rookie League and MLB.
The Rookie League is the beginning of Major League Baseball…the very beginning for a player. Correlate this to a company who is also beginning to think more about customer experiences and starting to do some things they feel will improve their customers’ experience. Usually this is in the form of these types of activities…
- Having employees smile more
- Telling employees to be friendlier
- Putting the candy dish out on the counter of the receptionist desk
- Giving the customer more SWAG gifts of useless doodads they don’t need
- Holding more customer events to thank customers
- And a host of other such related activities
These are all “Rookie League” activities because as we all know, doing something is usually viewed as better than doing nothing…at least you are in the game and trying to improve the experience. In the Rookie League, companies typically use the term “CUSTOMER SATISFACTION” to describe their goal and their associated activities.
When you enter “the Show” (as it is called when you are playing for one of the Major League Baseball teams) with such teams as the Seattle Mariners, you are at the pinnacle. This is where the best of the best get to play baseball. Correlate this to companies who are well known in offering an incredibly awesome and remarkable customer experience. Well-known names such as Nordstrom, Starbucks, Zappos, Southwest Airlines, Disney, Apple, to name just a few, are in the MLB when it comes to customer experiences. They are professionals in delivering an incredible experience to their customers and it shows in everything they do…it is what they have built their companies around.
Another way to think of this analogy with MLB is that these companies are considered to be CUSTOMER CENTRIC…everything they do is built around their customers. When someone has reached the MLB for customer experiences you get these types of activities…
- A specific customer experience process designed and executed consistently
- All processes in the company are built around delivering an incredible customer experience
- They know their target customers very well…and deliver an exceptional experience to them
- They go above and beyond to treat their customers incredibly well
- Their goal is to get a “WOW” with every interaction with their customers
- They get much more Word-of-Mouth than their competitors
- Their customers are their Advocates and help do much of their marketing for them
- And other areas that help differentiate their brand based on the experience they deliver
When you look at your company and the customer experience you deliver, which list do you identify with more…the Rookie League or MLB? Are you focused more on “Customer Satisfaction” or “Customer Delight” for example? Are you just getting started at really trying to improve your customer experience or have you moved your company to the MLB where your customers are truly a marketing agent for your company?
These are just a few of the great questions leaders should be asking about their organizations. This is the time to be very introspective with your answers rather than trying to “dress up the pig” and pretend you are playing in the MLB when you are still in Rookie ball. It’s a great time to be open, get real, and determine exactly what league you are playing in with your company and your customers.
The difference is huge between the Rookie League and MLB. Ask any MLB player and they will tell you they don’t even compare…the same with how you focus on your customers. And like any MLB player will tell you, it takes focus, hard work, being relentless at wanting to play in “the Show”, trying new things, listening and more listening to the experts, and DOING THE WORK to get there.
I use this analogy because this is exactly what differentiates companies that deliver an MLB customer experience. They didn’t get there just because they said “we really care about our customers”…they got there because they changed their strategy and execution to “obsessing over our customers and becoming customer centric”. But the rewards, as any MLB player will tell you, are immeasurable…unlike anything they have ever experienced. These players are completely differentiated from their counterparts in the Rookie Leagues. They are at the top of their game.
My challenge to you is to decide if you would rather play (and stay) at the Rookie League level or strive to play in the Major League. You, one of the leaders in your company, get to make this decision…no one else. We know where your customers would rather have you playing…but it’s up to you to make the decision. If you do, I can promise you a company that will be looked up to by your customers, the envy of your competition, and more profitable than you are today. Do you accept the challenge? If you do…I’ll buy the coffee and we can talk about what the MLB can look like and feel like for you and your company.
