Creativity and Excellence

Achieving excellence in any business is fantastic.

When performance reaches the pinnacle. When customers are almost universally satisfied, your processes are finely tuned, and your outcomes are consistently exceptional. The natural question is:

?What’s next?

How do you continue to improve when you’re already operating at such a high level?

This is a real conversation I had with one of our Regional Customer Care Managers earlier today.

Why? Well here are their Customer Satisfaction Ratings (CSR):

• 99.9% of customers are happy with the overall service delivered.
• 99.6% are satisfied with the quality of work completed.
• 99.6% felt adequately informed upfront to prepare for the work.
• 99.2% confirmed that work started on the agreed date.
• 99.9% found the team helpful and polite when they needed assistance.

These results are from 752 customer (Tenant) surveys, completed since the start of the project.

They are an amazing testament to the hard work and commitment to excellence by the whole project team. ?A great example where, processes – people – performance all spin together to gain ever greater heights.

But the journey doesn’t stop. Even at the top, there’s always room to grow, evolve and reach new heights.

or as King Louis would say - I reached the top and had to stop and that's what's a bothering me.

This is a new challenge – what next? ?To infinity and beyond!

Starting with the obvious.

?Avoiding Complacency.

When everything is going well, complacency can become the biggest threat. Success can create a sense of comfort, but this doesn’t drive progress. Excellence is not a destination. Yesterday’s WOW is today’s norm. ?it’s an ongoing process of improvement, innovation, and creativity.

No matter how high your current standards, you have got to keep going and keep asking: What’s next? How can we do even better? ?Celebrate – Yes. Continue – Yes.

Here’s how to ensure that success doesn’t lead to stagnation and then slipping back.

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Creativity to Drive Continuous Improvement

When you start with excellence normal thinking continuous improvement isn’t going to cut the mustard. It needs to be Creative thinking for pushing boundaries, when you’re at the top of your game. Use the freedom of success to go that bit further to the edge.

1. Challenge the Status Quo: Just because something works well doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. Encourage your teams to question every process, look for inefficiencies, and explore new ideas, even if they seem unconventional. The goal is to keep the momentum of excellence going in one part to drive excellence in all areas.
2. Diversify Perspectives: Innovation often comes from diverse viewpoints. Engage with different stakeholders across your business, including employees, clients, and supply chain partners. Did excellence for customers come at a cost to others? Their unique insights can inspire new approaches to solving problems, improving services, and delivering even greater value.
3. Experiment and Iterate: Don’t be afraid to take calculated risks. Experimentation is crucial for growth, even when you’re already succeeding. Pilot new ideas, measure the results, and be ready to adapt based on what you learn. Some of the most significant advancements come from bold experiments that challenge conventional wisdom.
4. Leverage Technology and Data: Use technology to your advantage. Analyse data to identify trends, predict future challenges, and uncover opportunities for improvement. Whether it’s through automation, AI, or advanced analytics, technology can help you streamline operations and enhance decision-making. Remember small gains all add up over time.
5. Praise, encourage and motivate: When excellence becomes the norm the value of continued praise, encouragement and motivation become even more important. They are the things that have got you from great to WOW and they will take you to new levels of performance again. Don’t forget the basics - Time, cost and quality as well as leadership, shared endeavour and discretionary effort. Be creative doing it.

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Customer Experience: Beyond Satisfaction

High/perfect customer satisfaction scores are a clear indicator of success, but they also highlight the importance of maintaining and enhancing the customer experience. Whether you’re in social housing, retail, or any other industry, the challenge is to keep raising the bar.

1. Personalization: Customers appreciate personalized experiences. We need to gather and use data to understand their needs and tailor our offerings accordingly. Personalized communication, follow-ups, and services make customers feel valued and can differentiate your business from competitors.
2. Proactive Service: Never wait for customers to come to you with problems. Use predictive tools and analytics to anticipate their needs and address potential issues before they arise. Proactive service not only improves customer satisfaction but also prevents problem occurring in the first place. Although everyone loves to solve and problem, it’s best not to have it in the first place.
3. Maintain the Human Touch: In a world increasingly driven by technology, the human touch remains critical. Virtually all our processes are driven through technology. Ensure that our interactions with customers are empathetic, understanding, and personalized. Small gestures, like a follow-up call or a thank-you note, can make a big difference in how customers perceive your brand.

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Spreading Success Across the Business.

When one part of our business is excelling, the next challenge is spreading that success across the organisation. However, we must do this in a way that inspires and motivates other teams, rather than creating antagonism or competition. (There’s nothing like that feeling of hearing about your Brother or Sister’s fantastic exam results!)

1. Celebrate Achievements: We will recognise and celebrate the success of high-performing teams, but do so in a way that emphasises collective achievement. We will Highlight the lessons learned and encourage other teams to adopt these best practices in our systems and processes.
2. Facilitate Collaborative Learning: Create opportunities for teams to learn from each other. We will do this through workshops, meetings, or informal knowledge-sharing sessions, collaboration is a great way to spread best practices and spark new ideas.
3. Provide Resources and Support: Not all teams are in the same place. We need to ensure that all teams have the tools, training, and resources they need to succeed. This might include internal audits, additional training, or providing access to expertise from other parts of the business.
4. Encourage Adaptation, Not Replication: Every team and project is unique. We might have one best practice approach, but every team will need to be aware of their specific context. Flexibility on the changes needed allows for innovation and engagement.

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Achieving excellence is a significant milestone, but it’s not the end of the journey. Whether you’re in social housing or any other sector, the key to sustained success is to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

Using creativity, to enhance the customer experience, will help your business can move from “WOW” to “What’s next?” The journey of continuous improvement requires a mindset of curiosity, openness to change, and a relentless pursuit of excellence.

In this journey, creativity and collaboration are your most powerful tools, helping you find new ways to exceed expectations, innovate, and deliver outstanding value to your customers and stakeholders.

When you find excellence in a part of your organisation put in the same effort into managing it as you would when you find a problem area.

??CTA? - Find a great success pocket in your own organisation and test your ability to then manage it to full advantage.