Deliver Plus One
Ken Blanchard’s Raving Fans is a must-read for anyone who serves the public, anyone who interacts with the public, or anyone who is the public. (Did I leave anyone out? No? Great.)
I could spend several posts unpacking the nuggets found in Blanchard’s book, but there’s one particular thought I’m ruminating on today:
Deliver plus one.
That’s the abbreviated way of saying “deliver your vision, plus one percent.” And that’s the abbreviated way of saying that you need to know your vision, refuse to over-promise your vision, and then deliver your vision consistently and constantly.
Plus one percent.
Delivering what people expect is..well…expected. But delivering exactly what they expect plus a little more? Well, that’s remarkable.
Your one percent might look a bit different, depending on context. Maybe you deliver a memorable experience for a first time guest, but your one percent is that you also remember their name. Maybe you follow up with a note to thank them for visiting, but your one percent is including a $5 Starbucks gift card. Maybe you provide up-front parking for a first timer, but you also wash their windshield while they’re in the service.
There’s never a bad time to introduce new strategies to honor your guests. As my friend Mark Waltz says, it doesn’t take a lot to wow people. So what will you deliver this weekend that acts as your extra, as your icing on the cake, as your one percent?
Related post: What’s Your 1%?
This is an updated and reworked version of an earlier post, originally published in 2013.
