Businesses Need "Perfect Service"

I was forced to take a few months off from blogging in order to work on a number of consulting assignments (that unfortunately were more strategic and M&A related than focused on service delivery). Yet, even after just a couple of months, I find a growing gap between companies that say they want to excel in service and those who are transforming their firms to do it!

Another of a series of excellent reports from Forrester Research illustrates this point:

The Good News

• 90% of respondents think that customer experience is very important or critical to their 2010 strategy.
• 80% want to use customer experience as a form of differentiation.

The Bad News

• Only 11% have a very disciplined approach to the customer experience.
• Only 62% even have some form of "Voice of the Customer" program in place.
• Lack of "customer experience strategy" was cited as the number one issue.

The link to Bruce Temkin's blog is http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/the-state-of-customer-experience-2010/.

My View

Having talked to senior management throughout many service industries about their competitive strategies, many believe that differentiating based on service is a viable strategy. After all, there are usually clearly identifiable competitors who are winning at price competitiveness or feature-rich product competitiveness. It feels like the only competitive space left is the ambiguous premier service segment.

It takes great discipline to align your company's vision, strategy and tactics to become a leader in any segment. In the Mutual Fund world, Vanguard's approach is perfectly aligned with its strategy for being a cost leader. Fidelity, on the other hand, has great product and technological features that it markets brilliantly. Both companies are built to succeed in that space.

Yet when it comes to the service space, all competitors claim victory. Price competitors can show the lowest prices; product competitors can show rich features and performance. Service competitors show a list of happy competitors. The troublesome aspect to this is that all companies in this industry have a list of happy competitors...premier service providers as well as Vanguard and Fidelity. Why? Because they are delivering on the promise they made to their customers....and customer bought them for that promise.

So having a "Differentiated Strategy" based on service has to be different than other competitors, both in design and delivery. It must align all aspects of the company, not just the operations or call centers. And it must yield results that are demonstrably different and better than others who dabble.

The Opportunity

With so many companies thinking and promoting service in their marketing literature, a company that is able to truly design and execute a premier customer experience will be able to find a receptive audience. I believe that "Perfect Service" approach is a great first step toward winning.