Doing something right
Your senses tell you when it happens; quick-spreading warmth followed by goose bumps and a pulsating heart rate. At this point, right has little to do with knowledge and everything to do with emotion.
Isn't it incredible how the same body that is responsible for fight-or-flight also lets us feel that we are doing something right?
Our brain is continuously exposed to experiential input, and none goes unnoticed; it soaks it all up, filters, categorizes and ‘tags’ each experience. Contained in each tag is an emotional value of that experience. When buyers shop, they are subconsciously trying to match a ‘feel good’ tag. When a shopping experience delivers a match, every part of our being lets us know that we solved the puzzle. Then, fully conditioned, we come back for more.
Shopping on Amazon is one type of an addictive or conditional experience. Addictive because all of us, like it or not, are variations of Pavlov’s dog: flying JetBlue or shopping in an Apple store are examples of businesses that are doing something right; they ring the bell and we salivate, a conditioned response that works even when you simply think about the brand. Or, as a very popular song goes "it's all about the brand..about the brand..no b#&#&#*t".
The beauty of doing something right is that the outcome is mutual; buyer and seller share the same feel good emotional outcome.
A neverending challenge for business owners is to avoid the temptation to half-ass it, or, to do something just for the sake of getting it done. Instead, owners must embrace the quest for consistency. Yes, this part is hard work and it is exhausting.
Equally incredible is the fact that the same emotional triggers that tell us when we do something right, will also ‘tell’ us when we're off; it just doesn't feel right and you know it!
So how do you get more rights than wrongs? If you're not committed to delivering a perfect customer experience then, to paraphrase Nike, “Don’t Do It”.
Doing it right does not mean getting it done on the first try, but it does require an unconditional commitment to a process that will get you there.