Awesomeness – Encouragement is Personal

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption to our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider to our business. He is a part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so.

–Mahatma Gandhi

By now, you’ve probably heard the term Net Promoter Score (NPS). It’s a system that focuses on the answer to one simple question:

On a scale of 1-10, where 1 is not likely and 10 is very likely, would you recommend this company/product/service to a friend or colleague?

That’s it. One question that sums up a customer’s entire experience…and also measures their loyalty. A person who responds with a 9 or 10 is a promoter, 7’s and 8’s are passive, and 1-6 is a detractor.

Promoters are not only loyal buyers, but they go out of their way to spread the good news about a company they like.

Passives are just that, passive. Their loyalty is weak…a fair-weather friend. They can be swayed easily to switch to another company if an alternative presents itself.

Detractors will go out of their way to spread bad news about a company. They’ve had a bad experience, and are happy to tell everyone about it.

Thousands of companies monitor their NPS. Perennially high NPS companies include Apple, Starbucks, Nordstrom, USAA, Amazon, and Trader Joe’s. Each invests time, energy, and money to deliver excellence, above all else, to their customers.

Consistent excellence (awesomeness) drives higher NPS.

How much time are you investing in your personal NPS? Are you paying attention to the impact you have on those around you? Are you consistently delivering excellence to those you care about the most?

How would the people you serve (family, friends, co-workers, employees, managers, strangers) answer this question about you:

On a scale of 1-10 where 1 is not likely, and 10 is very likely, would you recommend ______your name here_______ to a friend or colleague?

More importantly, how do you answer this question about yourself?

How’s your search going? Have you found the awesomeness you’ve been seeking?

There are a lot of awesome nouns (people, places, things) out there. A whole bunch of awesome verbs. And, don’t forget about all the awesome adjectives. String these together in almost infinite patterns, and you have the makings of a lot of awesomeness.

The sound of steaks sizzling on the grill, a beautiful sunset, the sparkle in someone’s eye when you’ve taught them something they never knew, the quiet stillness of a starting line just before the starter’s gun goes off, the aroma of a perfect cup of coffee as the sun comes up, the crackle of a campfire, watching your daughter roast a marshmallow to perfection.

The search for awesomeness should be an easy one. It’s all around us.

Sadly, for some, finding awesomeness is impossible.

That’s because they don’t realize that awesomeness isn’t about what’s outside. It’s not about what we see, touch, or hear. It isn’t what we smell or taste. It isn’t even about who is with us.

Our thoughts drive who we are, what we’ll be, where we’re going, and how we look at the world. To find and experience awesomeness, we must first open ourselves to gratitude and appreciation. Without gratitude and appreciation, all of the awesomeness in this world (and beyond) are merely nouns, verbs, and adjectives, waiting to be combined.

The search for awesomeness starts and ends within each of us. Gratitude is our compass. Appreciation is our map.

[This post marks the first anniversary of my blog. My goal was to publish one post per week, and limit their length to no more than 500 words. This is my 58^th post, and I think only one went over my self-imposed word limit (but, it was one of my favorites).

I’m grateful and appreciative that you have taken the time to read my posts. I hope you found them encouraging, informative, and maybe a little thought provoking.]