During a recent conference in Washington, D.C., I saw signs all over the DC Metro touting their Back2Good campaign. It seems their new promise to riders is to become more reliable and more accountable to build customer confidence. 
While this promise does have merit, why are they only striving to get back to good? How bad had things gotten? Why not strive to be great?
Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot about companies who go to market when their product or service gets to a “good enough” place. I get this concept—to a point. I get that it’s forward progress. In fact, this is a topic I’ve written about before. And sometimes good enough is okay. Sometimes it is the best approach for a given situation. But ultimately, shouldn’t we all be striving for great over time? Not perfect, but great?
Don’t get me wrong—the DC Metro has done something right: they listened to the customer, recognized the need for change and made a commitment to do so. But customers want more than just a good subway experience; they want a great subway experience. In my mind, a better commitment would be something like, “working towards building the most on-time, customer-friendly transportation system in the country by 2020.”
At J2, we are always looking to do better. While we know that perfect is unachievable and good enough is sometimes the best path forward, getting to great is truly our ultimate destination. We are always looking for ways to improve. As we work towards achieving great across our three pillars—relationships, service and expertise—we know we are ultimately working towards delivering a superior experience to our customers, our partners and our employees—and that’s the engine that keeps us running.
“Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.” Kim Collins
Be great this weekend.
Vijay