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Years
067 – Born to run and still running
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Customer experience is the be all and end all. Listen to hear how Bruce Springsteen made a contract with his fans to give them the best show, night after night.
In this episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares the story of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and how they make a conscious decision each performance to bring their absolute best and ensure each fan has a memorable experience.
As a short and punchy story, it is perfect for sharing with your customer-facing employees. If you do share it, let us know in the comments how it goes!
You may have noticed that we have redesigned our podcast cover art! We hope you love it as much as we do. A big thank you to our amazing Graphic Designer, Kerenza Smith, who designed it!
To sign up for our Anecdotally Sunday story trigger emails, click here. Each Sunday, we’ll send you a question or image designed to prompt a story that you can add to your story repertoire.
For your storybank
Tags: purpose, persistence, customer service
This story starts at 02:12
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are famous for their live concerts.
The industry standard for live concerts is 90 minutes to two hours, but Springsteen and the E Street Band regularly perform for over three hours. They even set an industry record in 2012, with a four-hour and six-minute performance in Helsinki.
Their concerts have no breaks, are high energy, and are a full-on rock and roll concert. Springsteen has been performing for over five decades and maintains the same energy, even though he is nearly 70 years old.
A few years ago, Springsteen was doing a few concerts in a row, and a reporter was writing an article about the band. The reporter noticed that every night it is the same—Springsteen and the E Street Band give the audience an amazing concert at full energy.
Before one of the concerts, the reporter asked Springsteen, “How do you keep doing this? Night after night, year after year?”
Springsteen said, “Come with me,” and they walked over to the side of the stage. Springsteen pulled back the stage curtain, and they looked out at tens of thousands of people who were waiting for the concert to start. There was a buzz of excitement in the air.
Springsteen asked, “What do you see?”
The reporter looked out and answered, “I see Springsteen fans, I see music lovers.”
Springsteen paused and said, “I see something different. I see people who have travelled long distances to be here; I see people who have saved to be able to afford to buy a ticket; I see people who may only have one experience of seeing Springsteen in concert. My job is to ensure they experience the Bruce Springsteen in concert, so I can never take my eye off the ball.”
Springsteen sees it as a contract he has with his fans. He takes each concert seriously and gives each audience the Bruce Springsteen show.
About Anecdote International
Anecdote International is a global training and consulting company, specialising in utilising storytelling to bring humanity back to the workforce. Anecdote is now unique in having a global network of over 60 partners in 28 countries, with their learning programs translated into 11 languages, and customers who incorporate these programs into their leadership and sales enablement activities.