Humility Leads to Customer Experience Innovation with John Rossman

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This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:   

1. How can businesses avoid settling into mediocrity in customer service? 
2. What role does humility play in improving a business’s customer experience? 
3. What is the innovator’s dilemma? 
4. How can companies ensure they are accurately measuring their customer experience? 
5. How does the concept of a ‘success trap’ affect a company’s customer service?

Top Takeaways

• Humility is critical in recognizing where a business might be falling short. It allows companies to honestly assess their customer service and product offerings and make necessary changes. 

• The real risk is setting goals that are too easy and reaching them instead of aiming high and always pushing yourself to do better. Mediocrity becomes the norm when businesses stop striving for greatness and settle for ‘average’ performance. 

• Embracing failure as a part of the innovation process can benefit businesses. This mindset allows companies to experiment and take “big bets” that lead to breakthroughs. 

• Customer metrics and feedback should not solely focus on the average experience. Paying attention to the outliers who express extreme satisfaction or dissatisfaction helps businesses address significant pain points and improve their overall service, which benefits everyone. 

• Having a clear framework and language within a business can help your team know when innovative thinking is expected and when precision in execution is required. A healthy culture encourages employees to innovate and go the extra mile in delivering an amazing customer experience. It also trains employees to implement structured processes that ensure that the consistency and quality of service remain excellent. 

• Adopting a mindset of continuous improvement prepares companies for future challenges. Regularly assess your internal processes and external industry trends to identify areas where you can improve.  

• Plus, Shep and John discuss the perils of constantly playing defense in business. Tune in! 

Quotes:

“I truly believe in humility as a starting point for change. Recognizing where we fall short with customers is crucial to being able to innovate and thrive.”   

” Refocus your ambition to accomplish what you want to accomplish. Everything starts with the will to be better. That ambition drives innovation and continuous improvement.”   

 “Many companies struggle because they lose the ambition to improve from where they are today. Successful companies, like Amazon, are never afraid to fail. They see failure as a necessary step towards discovering something amazing.” 

“Always have ambition. We’re not always going to hit it, but if you don’t have ambition, you’re on the path towards hitting something below it.” 

 “Let’s not accept mediocrity in how we work together, what we accept from each other, and how we serve our customers.” 

About:

John Rossman is the managing partner at Rossman Partners and the best-selling author of Big Bet Leadership, The Amazon Way, Think Like Amazon, and his latest, The Pig, The Lipstick, and The Playbook of Champions. (Be sure to download the book for free!)  

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.