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Providing The World With The Ultimate Customer Experience

Lucky's Blog

This blog has been created to keep our customers, partners and friends up to date with pertinent information relating to our industry, technical or otherwise. It will also keep everyone up to date with M.C. Dean's ever expanding capabilities. Thanks to all my followers and I hope you find this blog both helpfull and informative. Best Regards: Lucky Drake

Friday, August 19, 2011

What is Value in the Service industry?

We all know what value is when we are buying the “Big Gulp” at our local 7-11. It’s obvious! For ten cents more you get nearly 30% more. No brainer right?


In the service industry it is not quite as transparent as at your local convenience store or even with your favorite product. Service is an invisible product that most customers have to experience before they can decide if they are happy with it or not. Think of a restaurant. You can’t go out, order your food, consume your order, and then not pay because you were dissatisfied. You have to, pardon the pun, “eat it” and just not patronize that establishment again. While you can, and I suggest you do, complain about your dissatisfaction, you have little recourse at the end of the meal.

Why complain? In many cases the owner or manager will not know that there is a problem unless someone tells them. While I am a firm believer that a good manager needs to have processes in place to measure how they are doing, few actually do. I always preach that you need to worry about what people are saying, but what they are not saying is even more important. Most people will look you in the eye and tell you everything was fine, then tell everyone they know, about the awful experience they had, and never use your service again.

In some cases customers go after the cheapest price, throwing caution to the wind, and ignoring the signs of value, and get exactly what they bargained for, poor service and quality. However, in many cases it’s not that simple. A customer’s motivation was not just price, but they wanted the best value. Many poor service minded companies have great ad campaigns, and lure in unsuspecting customers who find out too late that the real signs of value didn’t exist.

So what are the signs of value in a service industry? My belief is that you need to focus on a few key points.

Reputation What is the reputation of your service provider? To start with, reputation is paramount. While yes it is possible to use a service with a great reputation only to have your expectations fall short. In general, the only way to build a reputation of excellent customer service is by covering all key points consistently. When you consider how easy it is for the general public to voice their disappointment within the online world, it is more important than ever to focus on complete customer satisfaction. So a company with a good reputation most likely earned it.

The Experience How would you rate your overall experience with your service provider? The other day I was sitting in a doctor’s office filling out paperwork and thinking to myself, in today’s electronic age, why couldn’t I have filled this out online prior to coming into the office? Instead I have to sit here and try to recall all the pertinent information and sit around and wait for the receptionist to enter all my information into their system. That is not thinking about the “customer’s” overall experience. If they were, they would have an online portal, for patients to enter and update their information, while having access to all their medical records. This would also save the doctor administrative time for entering and updating patient’s records.

As I have stated in previous blogs the overall customer experience, in my opinion, is the single largest reason that customers open their wallets, and develop loyalty to a service provider. It is also the number one reason a customer will never grace you with their patronage again if it was a bad experience. You need to focus on each step of the customer’s buying experience and do everything you can to make it as pleasurable and free flowing as possible. Remove any barriers that slow down the process, and make your service easier to use than any other service provider.

Dependability Can you count on your service provider? One key component to offering a great value to our customers is that when we say we will be there, we are there on time. When we say the job will cost this much, and be done by this time, that is exactly what we deliver. I have experienced many occasions of poor customer service in this area. Not to pick on doctors, but I have never shown up for a doctor’s appointment and been seen at the time of the appointment. Why is that? How is it that I can build a job that takes over a year to complete and finish it on time but a doctor can’t keep an appointment? If your customers can count on you to do what you say, and do it when you say you will, that is a huge value.

Communication Can you get a hold of your service provider? Every one of my customers has my cell phone number and when they call 24/7/365 I answer it or call them back within the hour. When you consider that we touch over 400 customers a month, just in the Tampa market alone, you might think I am crazy. However, because I have a great team that understands the culture built here, my phone rarely rings.

The key to good communication is to always answer your phone and talk with your customers. Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know-- but I will find out”. All too often I hear peers and students tell me that they don’t call the customer back until they have an answer. That is a quick way to be perceived as non-accessible.

In many cases poor communication is why people are considered undependable. You need to be clear with your customers, explain exactly what you will and won’t do, and when you will do it, or if you simply don’t have an answer right this minute-- tell them, but then get them one. Clear and concise communication will eliminate most cases of conflict or perceived unmet expectations.

Safety How safe is you service provider? Safety is one of the key points that most customers overlook. Depending on what service you are buying, safety could and should be your biggest concern. When hiring a service provider you are allowing unknown individuals access to your facilities, employees, customers and possibly sensitive areas. You want to know what kind of pre-hire screening, drug tests, background checks and training the company does before you just give the technicians carte blanche to your empire. In many cases they will be working around your customers, employees and the general public. You need to know what kind of training they have had to safeguard any risk of injuries. In our line of work we are actually working on the electrical systems, which are the life blood of your building, not to mention all the risks associated with electricity. We spend thousands of dollars per technician, and hundreds of training hours to make sure that we keep our customers and technicians safe. Our technicians understand the risks involved prior to beginning any project. We not only make sure our customers know our safety process, but get feedback from them to continually improve our methods to insure the utmost safety practices are being implemented, to protect our customer’s systems, employees, assets, and the general public.

Most of our customer’s general counsel and risk managers are aware of the importance of safe work practices and have put in place minimum requirements for those larger companies. But if you don’t have these resources you may want to ask a few questions before deciding on who you are going to grant access to your company’s assets.

• Do they have a written safety program?

• What training do they give to their Technicians?

• What safeguards do they implement to mitigate risks and protect the general public?

• What is their EMR (Experience Modification Rate) rating?

• What PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) do they provide their technicians to avoid injury?

While some of this may seem to be over the top, think about what it will cost your company if there is an accident on your site? Lawyer’s fees, Insurance claims, Workman’s comp claims, etc… not to mention the bad press you might receive, especially if you are found negligent. It truly isn’t worth the risk to save a couple of bucks.



In closing, while the economy continues to shrink, and everyone continues to tighten their belts, we all are looking to find a better deal and to shave a few bucks off our costs and budgets. However, I urge everyone to stay focused on what you are cutting. We all should be looking for better value, but that doesn’t always mean a lower cost. What we are really trying to do is ‘do more with less’. This takes some thought and strategizing, not just finding cheaper options. Bring in your service providers and see what they can do to help you. If they are true business partners they will listen to your issues and come up with options that can help. If they don’t they are not really business partners, they are just vendors. You need to find the “Big Gulp” companies that will help you figure out how to get 30% more for only ten cents. Those are your business partners and that is VALUE!

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