You find business insight in all kinds of unlikely places.
The latest example is from the great comedian Steve Martin.
The Jerk. King Tut. A wild and crazy guy.
That Steve Martin.
I just finished reading his 2008 autobiography, “Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life.”
It’s an enjoyable read, as you might expect. It’s a moving look into his life and the sacrifices necessary to achieve success at the highest level of show business.
I wasn’t expecting a great example of what we do at FiveFour, which is to design transformative customer experiences. But that’s what hit me while reading about how Martin developed his stand-up skill over years of constant performing starting a young age.
He took gigs basically anywhere he could find them, just for the opportunity to work on his material, constantly trying to get better. He was driven by excellence and innovation from an early age, from his first job at Disneyland, selling guidebooks at age 10, to the Disney magic shop and then performing 12 shows a week at Knott’s Berry Farm.
Here’s a passage that resonated in terms of what we do at FiveFour.
“The consistent work enhanced my act. I learned a lesson. It was easy to be great. Every entertainer has a night where everything is clicking. These nights are accidental and statistical: Like lucky cards in poker, you can count on them occurring over time. What was hard was to be good, consistently good, night after night, no matter what the abominable circumstances.”
That’s essential to staging a remarkable customer experience in business.
You can’t be great one day and below average the next. As one of our favorite experience experts Shep Hyken says, the goal is to be above average with every interaction.
That requires engrained systems, intentionality and hard work.
The entire team must come to the day with a mindset of being consistently above average.
My question for you is, “How consistent is your customer experience?”
Have you put in Steve Martin-level work to build a culture which leads to the level of success that your business is capable of?
Let’s do that and maybe one day you can host “Saturday Night Live.”