NLP At Work : The Difference That Makes the Difference in Business

what others had imagined. Nothing they imagined conflicted
with the outcomes of anyone else on the board. They each
visualized the extent of the business, the culture they wanted,
how the business looked, including its international premises,
how they perceived themselves, the role they were fulfilling and
the feeling of achievement.

If our attention is centered on problems, problems are what we
get. Even if we focus our attention on the reduction of
problems, we are still paying attention to the problems. In
contrast, if we have imagined what we really do want and
concentrate on how we will recognize when we have it, we
influence the likelihood that this is what we get.
Consider the following potential measures of customer
satisfaction:

The column on the left contains some traditional ways of
measuring customer satisfaction. They are typically problem
based. If your customer satisfaction measures are expressed in
terms of what you don't want, that is where you will put your
attention and that is exactly what you will get. If you measure
complaints, this presupposes this is what you expect and, sure
enough, that is what you will get.

What you measure is

what you get

What we appreciate

appreciates

ACHIEVE WHAT YOU REALLY WANT: WELL-FORMED OUTCOMES 281

Reduction or absence of
complaints
Number of problems solved
Reduction in time taken to
deal with customer calls
Extent to which you can keep
customers off your back
Amount of resource allocated
to your customer
Number of system crashes
Amount of downtime

Amount of praise received for

a job well done

Number of thank-yous for the

service you give

Voluntary feedback on the

benefits resulting from

using your service or

product

Amount of repeat business

Evidence of improvement in

customers’ work processes

Amount of smiling and fun

Amount of business

generated from visits to

your website