If you want to innovate, stop benchmarking. Benchmarking means that you’re looking at best practices from other companies [for example, your competitors] to see if its appropriate to make those practices your own. If you want to innovate, to make great leaps forward, stop benchmarking and focus on continuous improvement. Benchmarking puts limits on what you can accomplish or hope to accomplish. Instead, stop benchmarking and think big.
If you’re benchmarking you will only be as good or a little better than your competitor [if you're lucky]. Forget it. Focus on making the customer experience remarkable from start to finish, from every interaction point in your company and focus on continuous improvement. Create your own standards, your own best practices and others will try to follow.
