High Performance is an Experience

A client knows immediately, in most cases, when he or she is doing business with a company that is oriented towards high performance. The transaction the client has with the company due to the product or service being acquired does not determine if the client wishes to repeat this action. The impact, whether positive or negative in nature, on the decision to return to this company is determined by the experience the client had as a result of this business transaction. Allow me to ask the following questions: As owners, CEO´s, managers or employees of a business can we guarantee that our company is focused on high performance? Can we, in one or two sentences, define what our company represents?, Just as important, can we define the experience our clients have or should have as a result of doing business with us? Establishing objectives from a strategic planning perspective might be easier than determining the experience the company will provide clients. However, it is important to understand that a positive experience is the vehicle the business has to achieve the established objectives. This vehicle has to be defined and not left to chance, the experience must be predetermined. Allow me to present some real life examples, all positive, of the experiences I am referring to. These are: 1. The client arrives at a coffee franchise: he/she is called by name (according to studies, hearing our name is the sound we react to in the most positive way), the product received is of an excellent quality and taste, the atmosphere is relaxing and inviting, the coffee is fully enjoyed. Due to this experience the price for this coffee is above market. 2. A couple goes out on a dinner date: from the moment they arrive every employee they come across on their way to their table greets them with a smile, the ambient transports them to a different place from their day to day life, the waiter serves them with interest, enthusiasm and an attitude of service, they receive dinner recommendations at their table by the chef, and the food not only meets their expectations it exceeds them. This experience will motivate them to recommend this restaurant to their friends. 3. You need an article, whatever it may be, you call a dealer outside your city: the call is answered by the third ring, the voice on the other end is courteous and takes your order with a professional interest, once your order is placed you receive an email with a tracking number within the hour, once you receive your order the article is well presented and packaged, the product meets your requirements, you receive a follow up call from the company not only the day after delivery but sometime after verifying your continued satisfaction. This experience will assure that this purchase becomes part of a relationship not only this one transaction. Businesses must make sure that the experience clients receive, when doing business with them, is far more superior to what they will experience with any competitor. The product purchased is the beginning; the experience delivered is the vehicle for a relationship that allows a company to achieve their objectives. The key to high performance in business is an extraordinary and positive client experience. The question then becomes, how is this deliverable of high performance developed within a company? The answer consists of four steps, they are: 1. Define the experience you wish your clients to have when doing business with you. 2. Analyze the company; observe if the structure, processes and resources support the experience you wish to deliver. • If Yes  Identify the critical and indispensable elements and concentrate on them. • If No  Identify the missing elements and commit to obtaining them. 3. Set a standard for duplicating these critical elements throughout the company. The positive experience must be continuous not an exception. 4. Take care of the details, in them you find the experience you deliver to your client. In the examples given or in our own experiences with the businesses we have transactions with, we can easily conclude which ones have acted or not on these four steps. Understanding that the defined objectives determine which strategies to follow is crucial, of equal importance is establishing the vehicle in which those strategies will be delivered. In a high performance company, the vehicle is well defined, never stops moving forward or improving. “Never give a performance until all of the elements have been checked and rechecked.” (Doug Lipp, Ex Head of Training at Disney International)