It seems that often businesses forget that it’s the simple things that breed success, like being boring and keeping their promises.
It’s a human thing: make me a promise, keep it and I’ll remember that you’re honest and I will continue to do business with you. And, I’ll mention you to others.
This strategy seems too simple, but many organizations actually fall short of following through with what they say they’re going to do to their customers.
This is a travesty, and it’s an important reason why businesses don’t achieve the results they expect.
What “being boring” means
- Deliver what you promise all day everyday.
Always keep your promises if you want to create a loyal base of customers.
- Always meet the customer’s expectations.
- Do the basic things right. You don’t have to be flashy.
- Pay attention to detail.
- Be consistent.
- Boring is an element of Humanity which is missing in so many organizations.
Why being boring is important for businesses
Being boring is an essential element of developing customer loyalty.
Customer loyalty = Deliver your Core Service flawlessly (getting it right all the time is “boring”) + Create a breathtaking service experience + Have a Service Recovery Strategy for when you screw a customer over (and you will).
If Core Service is NOT consistently delivered without a glitch, the loyalty-building process cannot be started.
But don’t assume that being boring on its own will create customer loyalty because it won’t.
BEING BORING IS A DISSATISFIER.
If you are boring—aka meeting customer expectations—they give you a “C” on your service Report Card because they expected that.
And trying to exceed expectations by improving your Core Service won’t work as a loyalty-building tactic because for Core Service the best you can do is earn a “C”.
Save your money and make investments in the Service Experience.
But if you are NOT boring and you break promises, you get an “F” on your Report Card, customers rant to others how crummy you are and storm away from you.
You cannot create a “gasp-worthy” service experience with anyone if you’ve broken your Core Service Promise (Missed or late delivery, lost luggage, defective product etc.)
How being boring gives a business a competitive advantage
Because being boring—a.k.a—delivering your Core Service flawlessly all the time—is the foundation of the loyalty building process.
“IF YOU’RE NOT BORING, YOU’RE DONE (OR SOON WILL BE!)”
You cannot make loyalty-building moves (creating delightful service experiences for people) when they’re angry because you’ve broken your Core Service promise to them.
There are few (if any) businesses that include “keeping promises” as a Core Value of their organization, and therefore have “boring” as a key strategic driver of how they behave when it comes to customer engagement. If you have it, you’ll be unique.
By focusing on making the delivery of your Core Service immaculate, you will likely be the ONLY One in your space with a leg up on architecting a loyalty-building customer engagement process leading to gasp-worthy serving experiences.
Few organizations pay attention to “The Customer Basics”. They are too busy fussing with razzle-dazzle technology and applying the tactic of the day—AI, App’s for this, App’s for that—which offer little strategic value in terms of differentiating themselves from their competitors.
The type leadership required to be boring
- Build a Boring Culture where keeping promises is a Core Value of the organization.
- Develop “How can I help?” Serving Leaders who identify and remediate the “pinch points” in your product or service delivery processes that prevent employees from keeping promises made to customers.
- Recruit and keep Frontline Focused Leaders who are constantly listening and responding to matters they raise regarding service delivery systems and processes.
- Have “Detail Freak” Leaders with an eye for small details. Delivery system breakdowns usually occur from small causes; you need leaders who understand what boring is, and are able to spot small friction points that get in the way of flawless delivery of Core Service.
How I was a boring leader in the company you took to A BILLION?
▪️We build a Service Strategy around “Promises”. It read…
“We are easy to do business with. We care.
We provide and support innovative quality solutions.
We make promises and always keep them.
If we fall short of our strategy, RECOVERY will be our #1 priority.”
- Measure customer perception relentlessly.
- “Cleanse the Inside” program to eradicate friction and pinch points in delivery systems.
- My “Leadership By Serving Around” style allowed me to expose process flow issues.
- I held regular “Bear Pit” Workshops to discover Core Service breakdown points.
- We engaged customers in re-engineering Core Service processes rather than making the exercise an inside expert view of what was needed to make processes more effective from a customer engagement point of view.
- Established cross functional process owners with an owner for each critical service delivery process across all functional departments. I was able to establish “single
If you want to develop a sustainable base of loyal customers, BE BoRING.
Related: You Do You. Why It’s Important. How to Actually Do It.