I am not a good runner!
But my family and some friends motivated me to train for a half-marathon next March. If I ask what the benchmark for a half-marathon is, the result would immediately demotivate me, maybe even stop me from starting the project altogether.
Men typically run faster than women, young folks typically run faster than my age group. And there are probably a million other parameters like disabilities, elevation profile of the route, weather, and more.
My wife is an accomplished Ironman (yes, there are no Iron Women), finished 9th in her age group at the World Championship in Hawai’i. And she told me to forget about benchmarks and just try to have fun and get better and better as I prepare for the race.
I wish the world of customer experience was as wise as the sports community. As an advisor to organizations of all sectors and industries, I constantly get asked what the benchmarks for customer centricity are – for NPS, for handle times, for assessment results, and the like.
I keep answering that the only valid benchmark is your own past performance. Or – as Nike puts it in their advertising – BEAT YESTERDAY!
The first reason is obvious: just as every runner is different and every race day is different, your business is different from every other business you long to compare yourself with. If you try, watch how the management team will get all defensive and spend most of their energy on excuses rather than on improvements.
The second reason is a bit more subtle: if the identified “benchmark” you compare yourself with is too ambitious, everyone on the team might lose their mojo and resign themselves to not trying at all. I, too, would not start training for my half-marathon if the benchmark was some unrealistically ambitious time to finish in. The opposite is true as well. If the “benchmark” is below where you are today, how will you be inspired to strive for more?
Be a good athlete about your customer centricity: beat yesterday, and again, and again. And only benchmark against yourself!
