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I’ve already written about Factor.1, Leadership and Culture, and Factor.2, People and Culture, Factor.3, Science and Systems, Factor,4, Consistency and Spontaneity. So I’m now turning to Factor.5, Improvement and Pace.

Have you noticed that the traffic authorities are using more and more of those average speed monitors? I’d bet the main reason is because they work better than anything else! Single speed cameras do have the effect of slowing traffic down at the point(s) they are installed. But drivers then speed up when they are passed them. I do, and I guess you do too. However, average speed monitors know what speed drivers are travelling at for the whole distance they cover. And that creates the desired effect of slowing traffic down for the full distance.

And it's the same with attempts to improve things, like customer loyalty, in any business. You could choose to do it haphazardly, whenever and wherever it's felt necessary, like the odd speed camera. That will make a difference, at the time or point that it's done, but that's all. So just as with average speed monitors, if you want to make a worthwhile, lasting difference, what matters most is the overall speed or pace of improvement.

Most things can be improved. The often-quoted adage "If it ain’t broke don’t fix it" is in my view a stupid statement. The Japanese have a much more sensible phrase which is KaiZen. It means Good Change. Improvements to customer experiences, no matter how small, are all a good change and should, therefore, be considered as a key objective for everyone in any organisation. New technology, improved resources, better-trained people, customer feedback, etc., should all present ideas and opportunities for improvement. Remember that what today makes customers think WOW, will soon be something that is expected and simply make them think OK. So if there’s no ongoing improvement you risk becoming predictable and boring. Also, if your competitors are continually improving you will slip behind and you also risk losing customers to smarter competitors. I, therefore, think that continuous improvement should be a core principle for any organisation. But like many things, that’s easy to say, but not so easy to do. So the question is how do you do it? Here are a few of the things I’ve seen done that work.

I think the first key principle is that it should be everyone's responsibility to engage in this. No departments or individuals should be excluded or allowed to think it doesn't apply to them. It's all or nothing if success is to be maximised. So ensure that everyone knows they can influence customer experiences and has the objective of finding and implementing ways to continually improve. 

The next principle hinges on where to look for the best ideas for improvement. People often believe that the best approach to continuous improvement is to keep a keen eye on the competitors. It's true that in any business, it's important to know what competitors are up to. But I don't think they should be the key focus. The phrase I like is 'Look, but don't stare'. If you spend too much time and resources tracking competitors you will tend to ignore, or not look hard enough, at what should be your main focus, which is your customers. I'm reminded of something I once heard Terry Leahy of TESCO say at a presentation he did for Manchester Business School. That was -

When we stopped chasing our competitors and started chasing our customers, we thrashed the competitors".

I think that makes great sense. Of course, you need to know what your competitors are doing, but that should be considered as merely 'background noise'. Your main focus should be your customers - their needs, aspirations, thoughts and feelings. So they are where to look to learn what you need to do, how important it is, how urgent it is, and therefore what needs to be done.

An effective External Benchmarking system should also trigger worthwhile improvements. As I’ve already mentioned, many organisations do this by looking at what their competitors are doing. That's OK, but I'm convinced that the best ideas rarely come from competitors. Surely the goal is not to be as good as competitors - it's to be better. So I believe you should be looking for the best performers on any subject you're interested in, no matter what industry they're from. You should then be able to work out how to introduce their winning techniques into your organisation. Done well, that will get you ahead of the competitors.

The last system worth a mention is an Experimentation system. By this I mean a systematic approach to the trial and error processes necessary to develop new and better ways of working. In any such system, where you're stepping into the unknown and trying what's not been tried before, these trials will inevitably generate more error than success. But that’s OK and if you do it right and stick at it, the few breakthroughs that result should be worth all the mistakes and dead ends that led to them.

Pace is I believe the next crucial factor. That’s because if you think about it, if you are in a continuous competitive race, which is what business is, so long as your pace is greater than those you wish to beat, no matter where you are, leading at the front or trailing at the back, having the fastest overall place will ensure you will remain in or eventually take the lead.  So if you want to be recognised as the service leader in your market, town, sector, or whatever, your pace of improvement will be just as important as the actual improvement.

So having established how important pace is to sustainable success, the next question is how to develop and then maintain a pace of improvement that will outperform all competitors. There are many tools and techniques that could be used to create a winning pace. The following few are, in my view, the ones that when merged will make the biggest difference.

Aspiration - Gary Hamel from London Business School is great for one-line quotes that contain real wisdom and make you think. There’s one at the beginning of this paper, and here’s another.

I think it’s vital to set your aspirations high. Not just good - but great. Not just best in class - but world class. This can also be done with pace. You should be aiming for not just the fastest pace in your sector – you want the fastest pace of improvement possible.

Positivity - Shawn Achor is a psychologist working at Harvard Business School. He is one of the World’s most knowledgeable people on the subject and effects of Positivity. His TED presentation about this has now had almost 8 million viewings. The key point he makes, which relates to this subject of pace, is that we always have a choice about how we view anything. He calls it the lens through which we view the world. Put simply, whether we view things with a positive, neutral or negative attitude, is a mental choice we make. But the lens we choose will influence not only our own outcomes and life but also those of the people around us.

 

It’s, therefore, important to choose a positive lens for this. Things will go wrong and you can’t ignore them, but the main focus needs to be on what’s gone right. Some things will not work and they too can’t be ignored, but focus more intently on what does work. You can and should look for the fault to eliminate it, but you should look harder for success and find ways to spread it.

Celebrations - A deep principle of human nature is a craving to be appreciated, and celebrating success is a very important element for creating and sustaining a winning pace. This is something that we’re not generally very good at in business in the UK but if you want to keep up enthusiasm, energy and therefore pace you need to create simple techniques to celebrate all successes.

 

So there you have it - a few ideas about pace - its pain (all new things are hard to get started and can cause some pain to begin with – for example, just try adopting a new golf swing!) it’s pleasure (there’s something very satisfying in knowing that you’re the one to watch but impossible to catch) and it’s power (if you can create the winning pace of improvement you will have the power to attract and keep the profitable loyal customers you want.)

As a final thought, I think within it there are two other powerful types of improvement. The first is what I call Conspicuous Improvement. This means doing it in a way that customers will notice - and love. You want them to be forever wondering what next? So they will be looking forward to their next purchase experiences, excitedly knowing that in some way it will be better than their last. The second I call Combative Improvement. This means also doing it in a way that competitors will notice - and hate. You want them also to be forever wondering what next? But in their case dreading discovering it, demoralised by the knowledge that it will in some way have moved you even further ahead of them. These are two powerful examples of how a winning pace of improvement can cause pain for competitors and pleasure for you and your customers.

That’s it for improvement and pace. In the next blog about The Loyalty Code I will comment on the final Factor 6. Selfishness + Greed. It’s the one negative one that can diminish or even wipe out all the good done in the previous 5 Factors.