I deal in the world of helping Dreams come true…at least when it comes to reaching the state of differentiation and uniqueness. This is what helping companies move from “GREAT to REMARKABLE” is all about…leaving the average behind and achieving something truly remarkable. Unfortunately, as with most highly sought after prizes, it also comes with a downside…the “Valley of Despair.”
As the old wisdom phrase says, “If it was easy, everyone would do it.” Well, everyone wants the dream but when they hit the Valley of Despair very few make it out…they give up and go back to what was more comfortable and normal.
This has never been truer than when companies change from being PRODUCT/SERVICE CENTRIC and make the leap into awesomeness and become CUSTOMER CENTRIC. This is an incredible dream and strategy to shoot for and achieve…but it isn’t easy. I don’t say this to scare you away…well maybe a little because it isn’t for the weak…but to point out that many CEOs and Business Owners want this coveted prize but are not ready to slug it out when they hit the Valley of Despair.
Let’s step back a minute and talk a bit more about this “Valley of Despair” and what it really is and why it costs so many CEOs their dreams. In its simplest form, the Valley of Despair is when reality sets in and the difficulties of change truly come to fruition. It’s when your employees realize they actually have to “change the way they are doing things” to make this transition away from the old and into the new. It’s a mindset and cultural shift and all of this is very uncomfortable for most people. So they resist…and they do it directly, indirectly, passive-aggressively, and in a variety of other ways. The end result is that the resistance becomes so great that leadership decides it is too disruptive and so they abort the plan and give up on the dream. The Valley of Despair claimed another victim.
There are three key ways to overcome this Valley of Despair and stay the course toward achieving the dream of being Customer Centric…
- STRONG LEADERSHIP…this is a key ingredient to success. If the leader(s) are strong enough to stay the course and demonstrate to their employees that they have “burned the ships” (this means you reached the shore, burned the boats you came in so there is no turning back, you have to make it work) then the employees will either start to adapt or leave. But this isn’t just a power play by the leaders…it is actually the opposite. It works best when the leaders are incredibly positive and focused on painting the picture of what it will look like when they achieve the dream. It’s helping their employees see the end result before they get there so they can stay excited and motivated.
- STRONG PROCESS…another key ingredient to success is having a strong process that allows you to get there. When we wrote our book, “Creating and Delivering Totally Awesome Customer Experiences,” it was about designing a process any organization could follow to help them develop an incredibly awesome customer experience. It is a process…it isn’t just thinking you need to all be nicer to your customers. So having a process people can see and touch and experience along the path to change is critically important. If you aren’t following a process like our Customer Experience Mapping™ you can easily lose your way and drift off course. But with a process, you can stay the course and know where you are going and how you are going to get there.
- QUICK WINS…showing some signs of victory along the way is also a critically important part of staying out of the Valley of Despair. These don’t have to be a major change in the company but small wins along the way that show progress and that you are moving forward towards the dream of Customer Centricity and Obsessing over your customers. Little wins like changing the way you greet guests in your reception area can give you very positive and immediate feedback that this is really going to work. The way you handle an incoming phone call can do the same thing…these are areas that can usually be changed much quicker and you can see some immediate positive feedback from your customers. This gives your employees hope that if this happened throughout the company, they would see major changes and enjoy the new Customer Obsessed Culture.
Pursuing the Dream of being Customer Obsessed and having a Customer Centric company is very achievable. Unfortunately, the Valley of Despair claims a high percentage of victims. For example, I read the other day that 99% of small and mid-sized companies remain as Product/Service and only 1% become Customer Centric by changing their culture and operations to put the customer at the center of everything they do…the Valley isn’t very forgiving.
The AWESOME NEWS is that if you are willing to take this journey and fight your way through all the challenges and negativity that will be thrown at you, there aren’t many others to compete with on the victory hill…only 1%. If you are really looking for a way to differentiate yourself, maintain strong profitability, secure your future against downturns in the economy, and enjoy what you do even more because your customers love what you do, then blasting through all the obstacles in the Valley and bringing your dream to reality is more than worth it.
Are you up for the challenge? Do you feel armed enough to fight the dragons and bad guys in the Valley of Despair and claim victory? Are you motivated more by your dream than by the challenges you will be facing to get there? If you can answer yes to these questions, you will place yourself in the elite 1% of companies that are leading the way in their industries. If you want to know more about how to make this work, let’s have coffee and I can share with you how the journey will unfold…it will be like listening to your favorite story where the good guys always win!!
