Can you recall the last time you wanted to excel at something? Maybe you aspired to become an elite athlete, a world-class actor or a musician. I’m from Boston, which is home to some of the best athletes and artists—from major league baseball, basketball, hockey and football to award-winning actors and world-class musicians.

Watching these athletes, actors and musicians makes you wonder: In the most crucial moments of a game, during the last mile of a race or when trying to perfect a concerto, what pushes them to become the greatest at what they do? What gets them to the pinnacle of their profession? The key is consistency.

My global customer experience team adheres to the words of Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Your customer experience philosophy should be no different. Here are three things to keep in mind when taking your customer experience from good to great.

Consistency in Practice: Excellent customer experience is a practice. Every legendary athlete or artist starts somewhere; they don’t become great overnight. I’d like to think that someday I’ll qualify to run the Boston Marathon. But I’m not going to finish a 26.2-mile run today. I may run a mile today and then nothing for the next couple of days, and then do a six-mile run on Saturday. That haphazard approach to training won’t get me properly prepared, though, and it could lead to injury. A great runner approaches marathon training with a plan and creates strategies to implement that plan over time.

It’s the same with delivering a great customer experience. The process starts as a collection of random experiences—one mile here, six miles there. But to be in the league of greats, companies can’t continue down this disjointed path. Just runners train every day to perfect the nuances of their running gait and build mileage, we must practice how we answer each customer call or email. Dedicate time each day and practice the key elements in your customer experience strategy. This enables you to move from performing random acts to creating repeatable and consistent experiences.

Consistency in Measurement: How do you know you’re getting better? You need measures along the way. Measures occur in planned increments to gauge your overall strategy.

At Genesys, we have developed a consistent set of measures called the Net Promoter System. Yes, this is a system rather than a score. A system brings all aspects of our organization under the same methodology, so we have a consistent way to track progress. This system enables us to categorize our actions as immediate (transactional surveys) or long-term (biannual relationships). This constant gauge ensures that we progress, know which actions to replicate and can identify where we need to adjust so we improve. The system lets us make the right decisions—at the right time—and enables us to anticipate potential roadblocks for customers.

Consistency Builds Habits: Athletes and musicians call it muscle memory; we know it as a habit. Consistently practicing the actions that lead to your desired outcome becomes a habit—just as consistently adding miles to my running and cross-training plan could one day get me to the finish line of the Boston Marathon. This isn’t a random practice. You know what you must do to deliver the experience that customers expect.

At Genesys, we differentiate ourselves by making customer experience part of our DNA. That’s evident in how we show up every day—to every meeting and to every interaction. It doesn’t matter if our team members interface directly with customers in sales or services, or if they provide the invoice and write the legalese. Everything we do comes from consistently listening to the customer and putting the customer at the heart of it all.

So let’s celebrate CX Day and recognize how far we have come. But remember: Goals continue to evolve. One mile leads to another mile—we’re not at the finish line yet. Great athletes know that goals are meant to be set and, once attained, new goals must be established. I encourage you to keep striving for greatness—to differentiate your organization and, most importantly, to see your customers succeed. I’m rooting for you.