Are you running like an Olympic athlete or just strolling around the block?

Would you enter the Olympics if you knew that only a little over 2% (2.785714%) of the Olympians would walk out of Sochi with a gold medal?  There were a total of 98 events in 15 winter sport disciplines.

At the finish of the Olympics in Sochi the US had 9 Gold medal winners, 12 Bronze and 7 Silver. Thousands of athletes from all over the world competed to get to the Olympics and 2,800 athletes participated from 88 countries.  Out of all these incredible athletes only 78 won the Gold. Each won by a slight fraction of a second or point. 

Russia finished on top of the overall medal count with 33 medals. They also won the most gold medals with 13. The U.S. finished with 28 medals (2nd overall) and nine of them were gold (4th overall).

The Olympic athletes typically practice for 3-4 years, 6 days a week for 7 hours a day. The training is on the basics and for a 1-2 minute event. And as is often the case, in the competitive atmosphere the people who were supposed to win did not.  

Have heart. It’s a little cheesy, but it needs to be said. Even the most naturally talented people fail when their hearts aren’t in it. A decent athlete who wants nothing in the entire world but to win can best an athlete whose mind is 1000 miles away, wishing he were somewhere else. So get your heart into it. It can make all the difference.

Does Good Service Do Any Good? In today’s market place I believe just being “Good” will not get you into the game or the Olympics.  Winning a gold medal in the Olympics or being number one in business is very difficult.  Every day with every employee you must deliver exceptional service if you want customer loyalty, increased sales and incredible growth.

Most firms believe they provide superior service. Very few customers across the world can identify more than a handful of organizations that deliver WOW service with every transaction. List on a piece of paper all the firms that believe they deliver incredible service consistently.

The Service Strategy is built around delivering awesome service by every employee with every transaction every day. Amazon, Metro Bank (London), Southwest Airlines, Costco, Wilderness Safari (Botswana), Northeast Delta Dental and Apple are good at this. I would like to see each of you achieve the same brand, results and impact.

Great Service is the only thing that counts. If you are serious about building a brand around the customer experience you need to:

1. Understand the Service Strategy

2. Eliminate policies and procedures which are not customer friendly.

3. Train all employees on customer service with a new program every 4 months

4. Empower employees to take care of customers

5. Master Service Recovery

6. Measure the results.

Ask yourself these questions… How much time do you spend each year developing your employees?  How badly would you like to own the market and create a brand built around being Customer Centric?

Remember…. “Service leaders never advertise customer service- their customers do it for them with Word of Mouth Advertising.”