I recently read an article “Consistency Is Far Greater Than Rare Moments of Greatness” by Scott Ginsberg The Nametag Guy.

In it he makes the point “Because ultimately, consistently is greater than rare moments of greatness. And people only give you credit for that which they see you do consistently.”

It brought to mind that even before we become great — we must first become consistent. If you talk to any professional athlete, cook, public speaker, salesperson or customer service representative, they will all tell you that before they became great they first had to learn how to consistently deliver their product.

Only then were they able push to the next level — become faster, stronger or better.

In the book “The Myth of Excellence“, Crawford & Mathews state the key to successful organizations is first becoming consistent across the 5 key attributes (price, service, access, experience, and service) that consumer’s desire — and then achieving dominance in one and differentiation in a second, while remaining at par with the competition across the balance.

In my post Don’t Be A Jack of all Trades, I talked about focusing on your strengths — but only after you have brought your weaknesses up to par.

The consistent message here seems to be that before we ever become great we must first become consistent with customer expectations across all touch points.

Even if you are great in one area of your business — or one department — a single interaction with your customers that is below expectations can render the entire experience as negative. Think about after-sales service. Any issues come to mind personally.

My Perspective: Look at your customer experience map and look for areas where you are below par. Fix them

Then look for areas where you are or can be exceptional. Leverage them.

Don’t try to be great in all things, figure out what you want to be known for and make that the area that you will seek dominance.

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Bill is recognized as the Performance Excelerator™ because of his uncanny ability to create profound change and deliver extraordinary results with the most demanding organizations.

For additional information please visit www.billhogg.ca or email: bill [at] billhogg [dot] ca

In my last post I had been transferred to the Manager because I had been told by the person at the desk that all they could do was pass my complaint on to the department that I had the issue with. You will recall the transfer to the Manager was prompted by my request for the email of the President so I could send them a personal note.

The manager was really quite nice. She empathized with my situation all the while assuring me that my concerns were important to them. However, she did not contradict the assertion by the front desk that the process was simply to send comments to “another department” and pray.

In fact, she assured me that when I returned home, I would receive a survey that solicited my honest feedback and would be read by senior management as part of their ongoing desire to understand their customer expectations. Resultant, there was no need for me to have the email of the President. (Ohh, the red flags are waving now.) So I left without the email address.

The next day, we returned to our room to find a very nice basket of nuts and water with a note from the Manager (but still no email address).

Overall, I thought the Manager handled the issue very well, but clearly they were not empowered to actually do anything.

What seemed crystal clear to me was that someone had tried to implement a customer-focus in this organization, but fundamentally the senior team didn’t buy in. Resultant, the promise was not delivered. In fact, it would have been better not to make such lofty promises and raise expectations to a level that ensured disappointment.

So sometimes, customer focus language can do more harm than good. Be sure that your organization can and will support this initiative across the full organization before communicating these higher expectations to your customers.

Oh, in case you are wondering — I received an email survey for my feedback the day after we arrived home. I will let you know if I get a response.

Sign-up for my Monthly Newsletter to have 1 article with tools & techniques for excelerating high-performance cultures delivered to your inbox each month.

Bill is recognized as the Performance Excelerator™ because of his uncanny ability to create profound change and deliver extraordinary results with the most demanding organizations.

For additional information please visit www.billhogg.ca or email: bill [at] billhogg [dot] ca

I just returned from 1 week in Orlando Florida where I was spending time with my wife and youngest daughter on March Break vacation. What a pleasure to sit by the pool, catch up on some reading and not think about business except in broad terms.

Overall we had a great time, but staying at a resort forced me to contemplate what they are doing well, or could be improved on — particularly since they set the bar high with the following promise, “In just 25 years, we’ve exceeded the expectations of more than 110,000 owners worldwide by empowering our team of dedicated individuals who work hard to ensure a wonderful experience.”

So I thought I would use the next few posts to share what I thought went well, what could be improved and some lessons learned.

Let me start by saying that the check-in was very friendly and positive. Short efficient line-up, because they had lots of people on hand to manage the crowds (3:00 pm check-in). Our check-in person was very friendly, asked some questions about where we were from, had we been to Orlando before, etc. that made us feel welcome. They completed the registration by promising that we were going to have a great time and our expectations would be exceeded. (There’s that phrase again — someone has been doing some internal training about consistent messaging).

In very short order we arrived at our room (1 bedroom with pull-out queen size couch) and were pleased with the cleanliness, size, facilities, location relative to pool and parking, etc. Satisfied, but so far nothing exceeded my expectations. After all, this is supposed to a first class resort. Shouldn’t we have a right to expect this?

After dinner and a stop to pick up some groceries, we settled in for the night and discovered that the pull-out bed only came with 1 sheet – no second sheet and no blankets. The rooms are advertised as sleeping up to 4 people, but there was no bedding for the second bed (pull-out). A quick call to housekeeping resulted in a 90 minute wait and a second sheet with 2 thin blankets. Hmmm, things are not quite so exceptional.

The next morning, my wife went in search of a morning coffee (Starbucks is advertised in the brochures) only to disciver that the restaurant in our area of the resort is only open from 11 – 4 and is really a snack bar.

Resultant, to get a coffee, required getting dressed, driving to a separate section of the resort where “Starbucks” consisted of 2 canisters (regular and decaf) that you poured yourself and had the ability to add a couple “shots” in addition to cream or sugar. At this point we are not feeling very “first class”.

But I am encouraged because on the front page of their monthly newsletter provided to all guests at check-in, they have published the following;

Delighting Our Guests
Resort Services has transformed into a “Customer Care” department. All team members are provided with extensive empowerment training, which includes taking ownership of any opportunity to delight our guests. For information, questions, or concerns you may have while staying at the resort or between vacations, call Resort Services at ext. 6100.

So it looks like someone has the right idea, but will the idea come to life?

I’ll talk more about that in my next post, but in the interim, see if you can spot the problem with the communication in the above message, and what seems to be the issue that is beginning to present itself.

Sign-up for my Monthly Newsletter to have 1 article with tools & techniques for excelerating high-performance cultures delivered to your inbox each month.

Bill is recognized as the Performance Excelerator™ because of his uncanny ability to create profound change and deliver extraordinary results with the most demanding organizations.

For additional information please visit www.billhogg.ca or email: bill [at] billhogg [dot] ca