Q. How do you sell if you know you don’t/can’t have the very best products or the lowest prices?
A. You provide the best Customer Service!

In their book, “The Discipline of Market Leaders”, Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema tell us that the most successful companies differentiate themselves by 1 of 3 means:

Product Leadership – their products “Push performance boundaries.”ex. Intel, Nike, 3M.
Operational Excellence – enabling them to offer “Low or lowest prices…”ex. Wal-Mart, McDonalds.
Customer Intimacy – “delivering what specific customers want.” ex. Nordstrom.

To exist in business, we must be somewhat proficient at all three of these. But, to be really successful, we need something to “hang our hat on.”

“You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied.” –Jerry Fritz.

Many businesses today claim that their strength is in their Customer Service. In order to appreciate the value of Customer Service as a differentiator,we must first understand the position and importance that Customer Service occupies in a business.

Position Of Customer Service:
In today’s economy, where we may be competing with offerings form all over the world, it may not be feasible for us to have the absolute best products. And, it may not be in our best interest to offer the lowest prices.

Today’s fiercely competitive environment requires a renewed emphasis on customer service. Our revenue and profit growth (as well as the future of the business itself) depends upon retention of customers.

How Important is it?
“Over 90 percent of (the) public forms perception of a company based upon their customer service center experiences”–Purdue Univ., Center for Customer-Driven Quality study.
“Over 60 percent of (the) public will terminate their relationship based upon a bad experience with a Customer Service agent”-same study.
“Across all industries, organizations that lead in customer loyalty grow at more than twice the rate of competition”–knowlagent.com.
“Companies can increase profits by almost 100 percent by retaining just 5 percent more of their customers” –Harvard Business Review article.

Now, as we’ve said, everyone claims that they have great Customer Service. But, when someone asks them to describe it in detail, can they?

If we are to say that Customer Service is what sets us apart, then we need to know:

Just what is great customer service?
Great service is a matter of perception. Great service is what the client thinks it is.” –Mack McCormick Great customer service starts with the entire business having a customer service orientation.

We need to:
Create a “cult of the customer” ethos in our business.
Have a full range of services available to serve customers upon demand.
Have a corporate philosophy and resulting business practices that encourage deep customer insight and breakthrough thinking about how to materially improve the client’s business.

“If you get everybody in the company involved in customer service, not only are they ‘feeling the customer’ but they’re also getting a feeling for what’s not working.” –Penny Handscomb.

It means modeling the business around the customer (not, as in most cases, a business’ own internal operations):

Think about what our model needs to look like and how it will produce superior value to our customers (and profit for ourselves).
What are the benchmark standards of services values that our customers care about?
Focus on People, not just technology.“People don’t want to communicate with an organization or a computer.

They want to talk to a real, live, responsive, responsible person who will listen and help them get satisfaction.”–Theo Michelson, State Farm Insurance.

Jim Joyce is President of Sales Partners, Inc. He can be reached by e-mail at jpjoyce@salespartnersinc.com. Visit his website at www.salespartnersinc.com.