What gets measured gets done. What gets paid for gets done better.

Six years ago, Freeman began surveying every customer on every event to benchmark how customers rated our services and their overall experience of doing business with us. From the responses, a Customer Service Index (internally we call it CSI as we always come up with an acronym for everything!), was determined for each event, both trade shows and conventions where we served as a general service contractor (another acronymJ) as well as corporate events. In addition, each branch was also scored based upon the events they were responsible for producing.

The first year this process was implemented, we scored an average CSI of 71 for all events. Good, but certainly not great.

In the second year, we had spent more time and effort trying to get everyone on board. As more people became aware that their events were being rated in this way, there was some improvement. Our average CSI score increased almost 6% to 75. Again, this was good, but not great.

Going into the third year, we made a significant change that charted a course that has lead our average CSI scores for all events to surge over the past 3 years a whopping 21% to 91.

These improvements lead to our inclusion in some leading books that have been written on customer service excellence (Customer Loyalty Guaranteed and Take Their Breath Away). We were even featured in Customer Service Excellence, a publication of the Customer Service Institute of America. Topping it all off, we became the first trade show general service contractor or vendor in history to be nominated and won the prestigious International Customer Service Award, along with Bath and Body Works, Nokia, Jet Blue, Baxter Medical Healthcare and Zappos.com. This award is given annually to companies who exemplify customer service excellence.

This makes for a great story. However, what is important is how we were able to get everyone on board to support this important initiative.

We realized that if we were going to significantly improve the amount of effort each person in each department and each branch expended to improve customer service, then the best way to accomplish this was to base everyone’s compensation, in part, on their events’ CSI scores.

Are You a Game-Changer?

Relevant Insight:

Research has shown that companies who manage to stay positive, try new things and capitalize on opportunities during the downturn, make the most money in the upturn.

Easier said than done. Just take a look at the latest news headlines:

• Stocks set for a struggle
• Foreclosure inn: Luxury hotels in default
• AmEx profits nearly cut in half
• State budgets turning red again
• Uncle Sam’s biggest bailout

If you chose to let it, it could get you pretty down and make you think that now is the time to bury your head in the sand and wait for all of the dust to settle before you emerge to face the challenges that lie ahead. But like my old high school baseball coach (or was it my dad!) used to say, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

As a sports fan, I’ve always been interested in what elite athletes do to increase their chances for success on the playing field. Even when the team they play for struggles to have success. For example, I remember in October 1998 (while a Show Manager for NMMA) we had hired Walter Payton as the keynote speaker for our opening morning breakfast. He had spent 13 seasons as a running back for the Chicago Bears (1975-1987). For 8 out of the first 10 years with the team, the Bears were a sub-500 team, combining for only 71 wins vs. 76 losses. Yet it was in his early years with the team when he developed his own signature maneuver (innovation), the "stutter-step," a high-stepping, irregularly paced run. He went on to explain that he invented this unique move as a way to distract his pursuers during long runs, saying that it startled them into thinking and gave him an advantage over players who were actually faster runners. It was his way of changing the game.

In my mind, the company that best exemplifies success thru ‘game-changing’ innovations is Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). In 2001 (in the midst of the last recession), there were 50 manufacturers of mp3 players. All of them were focused on the music listeners and developing a strategy around making the device smaller, cheaper with more bells and whistles (features). Apple, unlike their counterparts, looked to the artists themselves for inspiration and how they could innovate around content distribution, making it easy for customers to access and organize their music (iTunes) and download it onto an easy to use device (iPod).

This completely changed the game. By the end of 2008, Apple had captured 90% of the mp3 player market share in dollars and increased their revenue by six times ($5 billion to $32 billion). At the same time, they benefited from the ‘halo effect’ as the Macintosh made gains in the portable computer market and the iPhone in the cellular telephone market.

If you’re looking for some inspiration to develop a process for game-changing, I’d highly recommend reading (or listening to) The Game-Changer How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation written by A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan. In it, the authors explain the process that leading brands like P&G use to integrate innovation into everything they do to create new customers and new markets.

Take Away:

So ask yourself…

• How am I responding to today’s business challenges?
  
• Am I questioning old assumptions seeking new ideas and business opportunities?
  
• Am I a ‘game-changer’ or am I sitting on the sidelines waiting for the game to change first?

Thought Provoking Quote:

“When the rate of change outside a company exceeds the rate of change inside the company, the end is near.”

--Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric