Habits of Amazing People: Be Proactive
In his book, Be Amazing or Go Home, Shep Hyken talks about what “Amazing People” have in common. In this blog series, I’m discussing several of these habits, including:
- Show up ready to amaze
- Know what it means to be amazing
- Always be on stage
- Always show up early (“Lombardi time”)
- Always act like you’re “on the clock”, even when you’re not
- Create an anti-NO zone
In this post, we discuss the habit that amazing people are proactive.
“Don’t wait for things to happen. Make them happen.”
There are four key take-aways from this habit that I will discuss in more depth in later posts:
- Think Ahead
- Create a Predictably Positive Experience
- Think Outside the Rule Book
- Stay a Step Ahead
Being proactive is a step in helping a customer long term. As you assist a customer with an issue, take a couple of seconds to ask yourself:
- Is this an issue that I have seen before?
- Does this happen with multiple customers?
- Is there a step we can take so it does not happen as often, or can we correct it completely?
If the answer is yes to the first two questions, then putting effort into correcting the cause of this issue for the long term is the proactive approach we should all be doing. While this can cause more “work” up front, you will save time in the long term and have happier, LONG-TERM customers because of this forward-thinking approach.
A proactive mindset involves the ability to stop thinking of the resolution in terms of “mine vs. theirs”. You must remember that it does not matter who caused the problem; it is how well and fast you fix the problem. We could choose not to tell our customers when we find out about a tax update or a form update that will affect the way they do business until right before this update is needed (obviously an extreme example of something we would NEVER do).
This approach would cause undue pressure and stress on the customer and our internal resources as well. Instead, choosing to send updates to allow for scheduling updates and creating a buffer for the customer to make the updates needed can create a better customer experience. Taking a little time now will create a happy customer over the long term.
How can you be more proactive in your personal actions or across your organization? I invite you to share these ideas with us and your company, and let’s discuss how we can help you with ArcherPoint’s customer service offerings.