GOAT Strategies for Customer Experience

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I've been thinking about goats lately...

Living in a rural community, goats are a common sight. There's a local business that makes the most wonderful goat milk soaps with the help of their 94 goats. The dedication, care, and commitment required to manage that herd and produce top-quality products are astounding.

But today, I’m not just talking about our friendly farm animals. I’m talking about the GOATs—the Greatest of All Time. From Olympic athletes like Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky to legendary sports figures like Michael Jordan and Tom Brady, and even iconic performers like Meryl Streep, the world’s GOATs inspire us with their extraordinary achievements.

What sets these individuals apart? It’s not luck. It’s the countless hours of practice, relentless perseverance, and unwavering focus on their goals. Their paths are filled with struggles, setbacks, and challenges, yet they persist and rise to the top.

Just as these athletes and performers have committed themselves to greatness, becoming a GOAT in Customer Experience (CX) demands a deep, unwavering commitment. It’s about more than just meeting expectations—it’s about exceeding them consistently.

Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000-hour rule in his book Outliers: The Story of Success suggests that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert in a skill. "Deliberate practice" refers to focused, structured, and repetitive efforts designed specifically to improve performance, rather than just putting in hours without a targeted goal. Gladwell uses the Beatles as an example, noting that they played live in Hamburg, Germany over 1,200 times between 1960 and 1964, accumulating more than 10,000 hours of practice.?

To achieve GOAT status in CX, companies must embrace a mindset of continuous improvement, innovation, and dedication to their customers. It’s a journey that requires time, effort, and a genuine passion for creating exceptional customer experiences. It’s a commitment to CX as a noun and CXM (customer experience management) as a verb.

Many companies claim they want to be the best in their missions:

• Amazon: To be the most customer-centric company on Earth
• The Home Depot: To provide the highest level of service, the broadest selection of products, and the most competitive prices
• Adidas: To be the best sports company in the world
• Barnes & Noble: To operate the best omni-channel specialty retail business in America, helping both our customers and booksellers reach their aspirations, while being a credit to the communities we serve

True GOATs in CX go beyond lofty statements. Here are the top five things that companies with GOAT status in CX do differently:

The Top 5 Things GOATs Do Differently in Customer Experience

1) Obsess Over the Journey: CX GOATs have an unwavering focus on understanding and improving every touchpoint in the customer journey. They map out the customer experience from start to finish, identifying pain points and opportunities for delight. Think of it like Simone Biles perfectly executing her signature 'Yurchenko double pike' to win gold. We must be meticulous in our design and execution of the experience.

2) Listen Like Champions: During the thrilling men’s singles gold-medal table tennis match between Fan Zhendong of China and Truls M?reg?rdh of Sweden, Fan paused the game for an offensive timeout. In that brief moment, his focus was entirely on listening to his coach’s advice. The intensity of his listening, visible on his face, allowed him to calm his nerves and adjust his strategy to eventually secure the gold medal.

Similarly, GOATs in CX actively listen to their customers, taking the time to gather and act on feedback. Just as Fan’s strategic adjustments were crucial to his victory, understanding and responding to customer insights is key to achieving excellence in customer experience.

3) Visualize Success: “You’re running a movie in your head of yourself attaining your goals,” Michael Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman said. “I want them to visualize in the most vivid way possible. I want them to smell the chlorine and see themselves swimming exactly the way they want to. Because the brain cannot distinguish between something that’s vividly imagined and something that is real.”

This principle of vivid visualization isn't just about mental rehearsal—it's about manifesting goals into reality. By creating a clear and detailed vision of the customer experience, companies can align actions to bring that vision to life.

4) Compete with Yourself and Support Others: GOATs recognize that their greatest competitor is themselves, focusing on self-improvement and personal excellence. Take Katie Ledecky, for example—she holds the top 20 records in the 1500m swim. In the Olympic trials, she finished so far ahead that she had time to remove her swim cap and goggles and relax while waiting for the next competitor to finish. Ledecky’s focus on beating her own records illustrates the mindset of continual self-improvement.

At the same time, GOATs understand the power of supporting and celebrating others. Abby Wambach, in her book Wolfpack, highlights the importance of leading from the bench, famously pointing to the player who assisted her when she scores. Wambach states: “Her victory is your victory. Celebrate with her. Your victory is her victory. Point to her.”

The best of the best support each other, even when they're competitors and even when they break each other's records. All boats rise: on the athletic field AND in customer experience.

5.????? Measure What Matters GOATs use data and analytics to track their effectiveness. They know that lead measures—such as the amount of time spent on the court, the quality of their practice sessions, or the specific drills they focus on—are crucial for achieving their goals and ultimately securing victory.

By focusing on key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with their objectives, GOATs make informed decisions and drive continuous improvement. In CX, we need to understand the drivers of the experience at an operational level (response time, resolution rates, and customer effort scores)– and correlate them to CX and financial outcomes. When we make data-driven decisions, we can precisely target areas for improvement, measure the impact of our changes, and continuously enhance the customer experience.

BONUS POINT:

Fail Fast and Learn from Mistakes: In the spirit of resilience and determination seen in Olympians, GOATs embrace the concept of failing fast and learning from mistakes. They understand that setbacks are part of the journey to greatness. Where would we be if Michael Jordan had counted himself out after not making his high school basketball team? Or if Usain Bolt had given up on the 100m after his false start in the 2011 World Championship? Or if Tom Brady had thrown in the towel after being a 6th-round draft pick? These champions didn't let setbacks define them; they used them as fuel to come back stronger, demonstrating that perseverance and learning from failures are key to achieving greatness.

In CX, a similar mindset is crucial. Airbnb’s early attempts to gain traction. Apple Maps unreliability. Netflix’s Qwikster debacle. Microsoft Windows Vista performance failures. New Coke… what the heck was wrong with Old Coke? These setbacks set them up for later, greater success.

To become a GOAT in Customer Experience, it's not enough to merely aspire to greatness; you must actively engage in the journey of continuous improvement, listen intently to your customers, visualize and manifest your success, compete against your own benchmarks, measure what truly matters, and embrace failures as stepping stones to success.

Are you ready to elevate your CX game and join the ranks of the GOATs? Let’s talk!

LoyaltyCraft was built out of a passion for helping companies create meaningful customer experiences. Founded in 2016 by Lauren Feehrer CCXP, we focus on strategy, qualitative research, customer design, and employee engagement to help mid-market companies open the door to new customers and keep existing ones from leaving out the backdoor.