“Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.” ―Booker T. Washington
You have a super power, and you might not even have realized it yet. Every day, you and I have unique opportunities to positively affect the lives of those around us. Someone having a bad day can immediately find that day turned around for the good simply by the kind act of a stranger.
We all have the chance to create a "showtime moment" in the lives of others. What is that, you may ask?
I watched a video recently of a woman who had been paying for her gas with pennies, trying to see how much she would be able to put in her car. Two gentlemen saw her and immediately gave her a lot of cash to fill up her car and help her. She began to cry and told them how her husband had recently died and her life hadn't always been this way. She thanked them profusely and asked how she could repay them. Their answer was simply to pay it forward someday.
Folks, that was a showtime moment.
That woman will always remember that moment. She will always fondly remember the kindness of those strangers who helped her, even though they had no idea how bad her life was at the time. Things were not good, and in an instant, things changed. It was a moment out of the ordinary. It was spectacular. It was unforgettable.
You already have showtime moments in your life. Maybe it was the first time you kissed your significant other. Maybe it was the moment you saw your baby for the first time. Maybe it was the day you graduated high school or college. It was an extraordinary time in your life and you have held on to that memory through the years. You may not remember what you ate for dinner last Tuesday, but you'll remember that special time. It was a showtime moment in your life.
When we interact with our clients and those around us, we have the opportunity to create something special for them. We have the chance to take their "ordinary" and make it "extraordinary and amazing".
Why do some people always shop at a particular store, even when a newer, more convenient place might open up closer to home? They have a positive experience.
Why do some people pay hundreds of dollars more to own an Apple MacBook when they could own a perfectly good (even faster) laptop running Windows for a fraction of the cost? A positive experience one time with the product made them a customer for life. People will literally camp out in front of an Apple store for days to be the first to get a new iPhone, simply because they have been made customers for life.
A person who has had a showtime moment with a company will overlook mistakes and problems a lot longer than a casual customer. Tick a new customer off once and they may never shop with you again. A customer who had a showtime moment with you will give you another chance or more.
A showtime moment customer will tell others about how great you are. That means if you give their friends a less-than-stellar moment, they may still give you another chance simply because of how highly their friend spoke of you. They don't have a reason to respect you yet, but they respect their friend and therefore respect you by proxy.
Let me give you my favorite example of a showtime moment.
I have a friend who recently took her daughter to Disney World. When they were finishing dinner, they had to rush to get ready for a Halloween party they were having at Disney. Her daughter wanted a crown to finish her Cinderella outfit, but my friend told her they didn’t have time to go and buy one before the party. As my friend and her daughter were getting dressed, there was a knock at the door. She opened the door and a staff member was standing there holding a crown. The server had overheard what my friend had said and picked up a crown saying, “We can’t have Cinderella late for the ball, can we?”
That, my friends, was a showtime moment. That was an unforgettable moment in my friend’s life, in her daughter’s life, and thanks to the power of social media, it has become a moment in the lives of hundreds of other people—including now those reading this post.
That server took an opportunity that most people would have never even paid attention to, and through a little extra effort they made the night perfect for a little girl and her mother. And now, they have created two Disney fans for life, while creating goodwill toward them from others who know the story.
Think about that. Now consider your own clients and customers. What showtime moments have we lost out on in the past?
What can you do today to create a showtime moment in the life of those around you?