“One Step Beyond”: Learning the Art of Anticipation

One of the privileges of a long career is the opportunity to pass on some of the lessons from my journey to people who are just starting out on theirs. One question I’m often asked in these mentoring conversations is: “What should I do to be successful?”

Whilst there are many possible answers, I’ve observed that success is positively correlated with three key factors: a capacity for hard work, an appetite for acquiring and applying knowledge and, crucially, the skill of anticipating and fulfilling the needs of others. 

The first two attributes, hard work and learning, perhaps need no further elucidation. However, the third one—the art of anticipation—could benefit from some further exploration.

Let’s start with a simple thought experiment, one that I have run with hundreds of people in conferences and workshops over the years. 

“Think of a time,” I ask the audience, “when you’ve enjoyed an amazing customer experience, something that really exceeded your expectations. What was it?” As we go around the room sharing examples, a pattern emerges; most of the stories relate to some type of hospitality, often a restaurant or a hotel. Each story, whilst unique, expresses similar themes: it was personal; it was empathetic; it made them feel special. When I explain to the audience that the hospitality industry does an amazing job of building systems and training people to deliver those experiences consistently, I ask them whether, even knowing that, it still feels good to be on the receiving end? The answer is, of course, yes.

Years ago, when I ran my own business, I would start our monthly team meetings with a track from the band Madness: “One Step Beyond.” It was our theme song for delivering a great customer experience. However, I remember one new team member who struggled with the concept at first and thought playing the track at the start of the meeting was, literally, madness. 

I explained it like this: imagine you’ve had a hard day at work, followed by a long and tiring commute. When you get home, your partner has made you a drink, run you a bath and dinner is already in the oven. How does that make you feel? “Well,” she said, “that would feel pretty special, like they knew what I needed most in that moment.”

“Exactly,” I said. “And that’s how we want our clients to feel. Because we are able to go one step beyond and really show them that we care. We care enough to think about who they are and what they need, sometimes before they even realise it for themselves.”

What does it take to successfully anticipate and fulfil the needs of others? Above all, it takes empathy. You need to have an understanding of who that person is, what motivates them, and what is important to them. It requires you to get out of your own head and into theirs, so that you experience the world as they experience it. Going “One Step Beyond” means projecting yourself into the future to look back from there and see what is needed.

Say you are early in your career, and you are an associate supporting a senior adviser ahead of a crucial client meeting. Knowing they are busy, you make sure you understand the depth of preparation required, organise all the necessary documents and prepare a brief on potential questions that might come up in the meeting. This proactive approach not only facilitates a great experience and impresses the client with the team’s efficiency, but it also helps the adviser feel more relaxed so they can focus on the client’s needs, rather than meeting logistics.

Similarly, as an experienced adviser, you understand that you can significantly enhance your client relationships by acutely observing what is important to those clients and how they react in different situations. For example, knowing that someone is approaching retirement and is anxious about the impact of portfolio fluctuations on their income, you can react quickly in a market downturn to provide reassurance before the evening news freaks them out. Give them what they need before they know they need it.

“One Step Beyond” served as a constant musical reminder to my team to make “exceeding our clients’ expectations” our No. 1 priority. When we did, the feedback and, importantly, the referrals we got from our clients went off the charts.

As the song itself says: “Hey you, don’t watch that, watch this.” I can’t think of one area of business, indeed of life, where a focus on anticipating and fulfilling the needs of others isn’t going to help you to be successful.