Traditional marketing models built on manufacturing businesses are increasingly out of touch with the reality of service based economies. Consider how “value” is created and perceived by the customer.

A car maker, for instance, invests heavily in R&D, manufacturing and branding. The value for the client is in this investment, culminating in the enjoyment of driving the vehicle by buying into the brand. However, if you are a service based business where is your value? Are you supplying commoditised goods or services that a customer can buy elsewhere? If the answer is yes, then your value must be created externally - that is, at the touch point with the customer. After all, if you simply sell the same thing that I can buy elsewhere without adding value to the transaction, the only issue is going to be price and in this case bigger companies will usually win through the economies of scale.

Think of how your front line people interact with your customers; is the experience always a superlative one, what else do you do to make them feel special, how are you differentiating from the other suppliers? Recognising that this shift is crucial to competitive advantage and commercial success, more innovative companies are now abandoning the “customers comes first” principle and adopting a “staff come first” attitude. Investing in your people, getting them to understand and share your corporate visions and goals ensures consistent delivery and enhanced customer satisfaction.

Sounds easy? Every company, when questioned about their USP’s inevitably opines that their customer service is second to none. Sadly, this is rarely the case but empowering people at the bottom of the traditional corporate hierarchy is the first step making it so.