Pit and Peak

  By Debbie Cline

Pit and Peak

Anyone that has had dinner at my house knows that we play “Pit and Peak.” This is our way of starting the conversation about the high and low points of everyone’s day. Dinner itself is often the peak for more than one person at the table (although the rules are that once one person has used a Pit or Peak it can’t be repeated). The conversation that stems from each person’s Pit almost always includes additional points of view as to how the Pit can be transformed into a Peak.

In business, I also believe in the Pit and Peak. The goal is to fill in the Pits and build them into Peaks while making the Peaks even higher.

It is not enough to simply bring the negative back to neutral, it is critical to build on the positive energy and create a Peak. If you take your eyes off the horizon and look down to see every crack, pebble and pothole in the road you will lose momentum and potentially fall into the Pit of Despair!

The best customers are often those with whom you engaged with while in a Pit and moved them to a Peak. You do not need to eliminate every possible Pit, as many have negligible impact of customer experience. Winning relationships are those in which the negatives are eliminated and the positives are elevated/amplified.

Forrester shares in their US Customer Experience Index Report that elevating the positives in a customer relationship creates 9 times more revenue than eliminating the negatives. This is in part because happy customers spend more. Over 80% of customers are willing to pay more for a superior customer experience.

So get out your calendars and schedule a call or dinner with your customers. Ask about their Pits and Peaks and listen hard. Take these learnings and focus your time and resources on filling in the right pits and amplifying the peaks. Your revenues as well as your relationships depend on it.


Debbie is co-founder, chief of customer success at Buzzy Rocket and yellow lab lover. From LA to London, she is well known as an expert in creating that certain elusive magic that drives explosive growth at the intersection of companies, customers and mobile. She has proven strategic vision, and isn’t afraid to get in the trenches. In fact, she’s been doing this at companies big and small for 25+ years. Her background includes executive level positions at both public companies and startups where she has proven over and over again that her passion, drive and results oriented perspective get it done. She is tenacious, loves the game changer and loves to win.

Debbie is co-founder, chief of customer success at Buzzy Rocket and yellow lab lover. From LA to London, she is well known as an expert in creating that certain elusive magic that drives explosive growth at the intersection of companies, customers and mobile. She has proven strategic vision, and isn’t afraid to get in the trenches. In fact, she’s been doing this at companies big and small for 25+ years. Her background includes executive level positions at both public companies and startups where she has proven over and over again that her passion, drive and results oriented perspective get it done. She is tenacious, loves the game changer and loves to win.

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