Last week I was responding to a Request for Information from an organisation that wanted to create a "world-class, high quality website". It got me thinking – what does it mean to be world-class? The phrase is in danger of being used so often that it becomes meaningless. So this month we’ve invited Dan Szuc to share some of his thoughts on what it takes to be "world-class".

It is easy to make lofty statements about being "world-class", but it is much harder to orchestrate your people, processes and systems to actually deliver on the phrase. In all the projects and domains that I have worked in over the last 15 years, I’ve never come across a perfect methodology that will guarantee world-class customer experiences. But, I believe that there are some practical rules of thumb that will increase the likelihood of success:

Have a vision. The first step to world-class is to know what you are heading towards, the North Star that guides all the day-to-day activities and projects. Even if you are a small team, having an explicit vision and design principles can be extremely helpful. You might want to check out 3 Steps for Creating an Experience Vision or Planning Your UX Strategy.

Focus, focus, focus. It’s crucial to understand how your customers interact with you. What are their key touch points and core user journeys? Concentrate on getting those humming, and don’t get too carried away incorporating features and functions that are edge cases.

Pinkberry yoghurt does it right. They have been called "frozen heroin juice" because 1,300 – 1,600 customers cheerfully queue up as often as four nights in a single week, in 20-minute lines that have been known to go up the block and around the corner. Their trick: they started off by selling only two flavours of yoghurt, original and green tea. You couldn’t buy anything else, not even water. (Honorary mention: Flip won 13% of the camcorder market in their first year by doing less.)

Make it easy for customers. Steve Krug did us all a favour when he summarised what UX professionals do in four short words "Don’t Make Me Think." So use plain English (or as Dan Pink puts it "speak like a human"). Alert customers when they need to do something (like pay a bill) or when something important has happened (a transfer was made). Don’t make people think or do any more than they need to in order to complete their goal.

Avoid channel-centric thinking. Most customers have probably never heard the word "channel" and are not aware that they use channels. But customers do look for consistent experiences between channels and smart ways to complete their goals quickly. So don’t think channels, think goals.

Don’t ignore your company culture. Culture can nurture or hinder your chances of success when trying to deliver great experiences. I have seen organisations where people are scared to make decisions, not encouraged to lead, restricted by capability, caught up in politics, or simply rewarded for short term thinking. Contrast this with the Zappos culture where the customer service reps have a goal of handwriting 5 notes to customers each day.

It’s important to understand what kind of culture you work in. If the company ultimately doesn’t care about customers, then you have to ask yourself whether you can make a difference at all.

Start small. You can’t get to world-class by trying to boil the ocean. So start with a small project and really nail it. Consider working in small teams too. If there are 20 people around the table in a project meeting, you’ve got to wonder how many of them are hoping someone else is going to take responsibility.

Be subversive. Large organisations are very good at defining job roles and creating hierarchy. We all need to know where and how we fit, but it’s important to not create artificial boundaries that stifle creativity and knowledge sharing. The challenge is to break through the silos and speak to whoever you need to in order to get the job done.

These are a few ideas or starting points on what it takes to create a world-class customer experience.