Some of you have asked why ClearlyRated spends so much time talking about (and sometimes giving away) Fitbits. That’s a reasonable question – best answered with a short anecdote pulled from the Gregg family archives. Ready for a quick trip down memory lane? I can promise self-deprecating humor and halloween photos. Here we go… Eric circa 2013 Look at that strapping young gent. That’s me with my daughter Delaney in 2013. What you might not be able to tell (thanks to the slimming properties of a black rain jacket) is that back then I was 25 lbs overweight. Not the most exciting thing to admit. After all, “Dad Bod” wasn’t a sought-after look until 2016 (at the earliest). Needless to say, I was motivated to lose weight and ready to invest in a healthy lifestyle. So I did what any clear-thinking adult would do – I decided to purchase a fitness tracker. Enter the Fitbit After the obligatory due diligence, I landed on a Fitbit – ‘Fitbit motivates you to reach your health and fitness goals by tracking your activity, exercise, sleep, weight and more’, said their website. Exactly what I needed. I was sold. As expected, I learned a lot from wearing my Fitbit. I could tell you specifics like: Average amount of sleep I get each night: 6 hrs and 36 minutes Average # of times I get woken up per night: 3.2x per (thanks, Delaney) Average resting heart rate: 62 BPM Average steps taken per day: 10,345 Look at all of that information! I was ready to go, confident that this newfound omniscience would help propel me toward my health goals. Eric circa 2016 3 years later, I had seen an amazing transformation… Amazing in the sense that it was the exact opposite of what I had set out to accomplish when I decided to purchase a fitness tracker. I had gained another 3 lbs. Turns out, the simple act of measuring and monitoring these statistics did little, if anything, to move me closer to my weight loss goals. In fact, some basic arithmetic would tell you that having this information at my fingertips actually hurt more than it helped. Why am I sharing this weight loss failure story? I’ll admit, selfishly it’s extra motivation to exercise more (and possibly an excuse to show off my undeniably adorable children). But the real ‘aha! moment’ here has implications for the way we can and should think about effecting change in our businesses. Fitbits and Client Satisfaction Just like staying active is good for our overall health – ensuring you have a pulse on your clients’ satisfaction is core to your business growth. But simply tracking, measuring, and capturing this information alone isn’t enough. Let’s revisit my less-than-impressive fitness journey as a cautionary tale. I can have all the information in the world available to me from my fitness tracker, but until I intentionally alter my behavior I’m not going to see any improvements in my weight. The same holds true when it comes to client satisfaction improvement efforts. Don’t get me wrong. I encourage you (in fact, I urge you) to survey your clients and listen closely to the feedback they provide. But you won’t see a true ROI from these efforts until you resolve to take action – even imperfect action – with this information. To borrow from one of ClearlyRated’s clients, “if knowing is half the battle, being able to quickly and appropriately respond is the other half.” My Fitbit was telling me exactly what I needed to do (it wasn’t rocket science – “move more, Eric!”) but I didn’t act and consequently was disappointed with my results. Similarly, your clients will tell you where and how you can improve the experience they have working with you but without an execution plan – nothing is changing (in fact, it might even be getting worse). Remember: information is power, but action is improvement.
