We are engrossed watching an on-stage drama unfold. The talented actors take us on a ride of emotions with them. We laugh and cry with them. We fear, and we are worried. We are relieved, and we are delighted. We transit from an onlooker to becoming an integral part of the journey.
If we think of it, everything we do is an act. We perform on various stages in front of varied audiences. Be it a presentation we are making or a meeting we are attending. We are performing while attending a complaint and while posting on social media. We are always on-stage.
Being on-stage is a state of mind. It is an all-encompassing view of life. If we think of our work as an act, then we would break it into micro parts. The first and last impression is critical. It is essential to know the tipping points in our story. If we do not think of it, we can make these moments depressing, frustrating, or boring. But if we are proactive, we can seize these moments and make them memorable. We create magical moments when we break the script.
A three-step formula for delighting the audience is:
Provide insights at critical points in the journey.
Sprinkle the journey with memorable milestones that break the expectancy loop.
Make the audience trip over the truth. Let the audience experience it first-hand.
Metrics:
Select a critical process in your organization.
Write down the present script.
Use data to identify where the audience drift away from it.
Find ways to make the first and last impression memorable. For example, whenever someone walks into your office, train your people to receive them well. Offer them some beverages and be polite with them. I know a Doctor in Alibaug. He walks down to see off the patient leaving the hospital after surgery. Now, that's making a last impression.
Identify the potential points of friction and work on smoothening the edges. Think of ways to make even these moments memorable. For example, it is routine to have a ticketing system for managing customer complaints. Most often, the language in the messages is transactional. We should make it more compassionate and follow it with action.
A good act is not possible without rehearsals. Dry run your initiatives before launching them.
Subodh
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