30+ years ago Sylvester Stallone starred in the third installment of the Rocky franchise. If you’ve never seen it, the now champion (after a brutal 15-round knockout of Apollo Creed) enjoys life and allows himself to become complacent, eventually being knocked out by a younger and hungrier (and meaner) Clubber Lang. As the drama plays out, Rocky rediscovers the fire and gets back his “eye of the tiger” easily knocking out Lang in the rematch and setting up three more sequels.
This scenario plays itself out in real life too. Companies and businesses struggle to grow and become successful. Eventually they make it but sadly, complacency seems to set in. The business scales back on service. The company becomes less responsive to customers. Competitors that are hungrier attract the unhappy clients. Eventually the business folds and the company goes out of business.
The scenario is the same. The symptoms are too. The challenge becomes recognizing them – and fixing them.
I see and experience it first hand. A large vendor I used to do some contract work with forgot little things, like the right materials for the workshop I was supposed to teach, or packaging a bunch of dated material that was haphazardly thrown together and selling it to a client. The travel agency they made me use forgot to add my Rapid Reward number to my Southwest Airlines flight, resulting in me having to board in the “C” group and check my bag. It’s the little things that add up and cause a person to lose trust. Before long, that customer either gives up or has to micromanage the transaction – both of which are unacceptable.
How are you doing in this area? As an employee, have you lost that fire, giving only the bare minimum effort to your job? As a company, are you so inundated with customers that you have no problem dropping your level of service since there will always be more customers? As a business, have you had so much success that you no long feel as though you need to be creative? Trust me, at some point it all comes back to bite you.
This week, think about what you can do to recapture that “Eye of the Tiger.” Look at what you’re doing and figure out how to do it better. Reengage your customers and see what you offer from their perspective. Better to do it now before a knockout forces you to start from scratch.