How to be the best in the business

Every business dreams of becoming an industry leader. Some want to be the best in the world, while others just want to be the best in their own county. No matter the magnitude of the goal, there are a few basic best practices that can help businesses of all sizes.

Doing your best

As a business, your first and most important commitment is to your customers. If someone chooses you to fulfill a particular need or faces an issue with your offering, it's essential that you do your best to solve it for them. Exhaust all possible avenues, go the extra mile as much as possible, and do whatever is humanly possible and reasonable to fulfill a customer's need. That level of commitment leaves a lasting impression and leads to loyalty.

An example of this practice is Ritz-Carlton's $2,000 policy for customer service: Whenever a customer raises a complaint, customer-facing employees—the direct representatives of the business—can spend up to $2,000 to solve the issue or compensate for the hassle caused. An approach like this ensures an immediate solution and increased customer satisfaction—a hallmark of companies that are the best in the business.

Bringing out the best in others

Empower your internal stakeholders—employees. Any business, no matter the industry, runs on human effort. Even though there's a substantial amount of automation happening across verticals, those automation efforts need human ingenuity and involvement. The only way to inspire ingenuity is by empowering employees.

Let's go back to the Ritz-Carlton example. Team members don't have to wait for a green light from their manager in order to come up with a solution. They see a problem; they fix the problem. This sort of practice needs strategic thinking and a deep-rooted culture of customer obsession—both made possible only through executive backing.

Having your customers' best interests in mind

Doing business means selling solutions, but it doesn't have to be at the cost of your customers. Don't sell a solution if it doesn't fulfill a customer's need the way they want it to.

A deep knowledge of your offerings makes you aware of both their capabilities and limitations. With this knowledge, you can make a customer's assessment and decision-making easier and more meaningful.

Apply this practice to other areas, too, such as lock-in periods and porting policies. If a customer chooses to discontinue their journey with you, it simply means they haven't got what they wanted. Don't make it difficult for them to move on. If you try to retain the relationship forcefully, you might get their money for a while, but you'll lose their trust, loyalty, and advocacy forever.

Identifying the acceptable best

There's no such thing as "universal best"—each person might have their own definition and parameters to decide who or what is the "best."

However, while there's no universal best, there's something that we call the "acceptable best"—fundamental asks and expectations that matter to all customers. Fortunately, getting customers on the same page and identifying this acceptable best is fairly easy. How can a business identify the acceptable best? That's exactly what we'll explore in our next article.

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