The Amazing Sound Guy!

I had lunch with JJ (one of our product leaders) this week. We got to talking about some of the reviews our service gets from customers.

JJ pointed out that the things called out in our negative reviews (those from people who reported an NPS below 7) were completely different from the things called out in our positive reviews (those with an NPS of 7 or above).

By the way, for those not familiar with NPS, it stands for net promoter score. It’s a way to measure the likelihood that someone would recommend the service - by just asking them “on a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend our product or service to a friend or family member?”

What made for a great experience was not the same thing that made for a poor one.

The folks who had a great experience highlighted expertise and execution as reasons for their fantastic experience whereas those less satisfied customers metioned neither.

That got me thinking...

It’s a bit like going to a concert.

If the sound is terrible, the mics are popping and the mix is way off, the concert experience will be terrible.

People will tell their friends just how awful it was.
Then over time, they’ll likely forget all about the show.

But if the sound engineer puts on a flawless performance, no one will comment about how perfect the mix was.

They’ll turn their attention to the band and assuming they’re good, they’ll say “Wow! That was a great show!”

The band is what makes the experience great, but the sound engineer can make it terrible.

These are two sides of the same experience coin: The things that make it memorable and stand out in a positive way, and the things that can offset what otherwise could have been a fantastic experience.

When we over-index on one or the other, we set ourselves up to create a lackluster experience at best.

A team that cares about putting on a great show will make sure both the performers and the sound engineers are dialed in.

A great product or service experience requires delivering both the unique wow! factor and excellence in the ordinary.