Remember the scene in Ferris Buehler’s Day Off when the girl recounts where she heard Ferris is dying? Â I feel a little like that. Â Seth Godin in his blog today pulled out a piece of an interview done by Time Out New York with Diablo Cody, screenplay writer of Juno. He called his, Top This. Here is the piece of the interview:
So what kind of pressure did you feel, post-Juno, to write something good?
None.
I don’t believe you.
Seriously. How could I possibly? The experience that I had with Juno is something I could never replicate, ever. First of all, you never have your first baby again. Second, the whole production was really charmed from start to finish. I mean, every moment of it was special. And then it culminated in Oscar nominations…I’m so fortunate that I got to have that experience. Now I almost feel this great calm coming over me. I’d be feeling a lot more pressure if I was still striving for that goal.
Seth’s point, which I love, is sometimes what you are doing isn’t about topping what you did yesterday. Isn’t that the truth? How often have you exceeded customer expectations and the next time they come back they want EXACTLY the same thing? Not more – not different. Just the same great experience they got the last time. If customers routinely thank you for being fast, you don’t have to be faster. Just don’t get slow without communicating what is going on. If they like friendly, then figure out what you have to do to be that friendly ALL THE TIME. There are so many ways you can make sure they get those little extras consistently and you don’t have to kill yourself for more or different. Believe me, there are lots of other people out there not coming even close to service!
So don’t set unachievable goals for yourself – just make sure you do the job at the level your customers appreciate.
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