A service strategy is a competitive weapon. It is a particular way that organizations choose to differentiate themselves from their competition, and, ultimately, to be successful in their results. The benefits of a service strategy are many. In this article you will find 9 of them.
It is not the only way there is to differentiate yourself. There are those who bet on innovation in their products and services, or those who, for example, seek new distribution channels. Also, those who offer the lowest price guarantee. Another way to differentiate yourself is through a product or service for a specific market segment, for example premium products / services.
A service strategy can have to do at some point with any of these strategies, it can even coexist with them, however it is something different.
What is a service strategy?
A service strategy is a way of seeking differentiation by emphasizing the relationship with customers.
The need to differentiate in service is born with the awareness that, whatever you are offering to the market, you are offering a service. But a service in the full sense of the word.
A mobile phone does not by itself meet a person's need for communication. The right phone model for that person, with a plan according to their budget and needs, delivered on time, with a convenient form of payment and an effective channel of communication in case of failures or problems… All this, and more, makes up the service you offer to the customer. If you manage it well, the client enters into a relationship with the organization that is allowing them to communicate.
Such a relationship that he will not doubt that this organization is the best alternative to stay connected, because it has been understood in its need, and adequately supplied.
In short, an organization that develops a service strategy seeks to build a relationship with its customers. It is this relationship that produces loyalty.
So why a service strategy?
The advantages of having loyal customers are many:
- A loyal customer, every time they have a need that your organization can meet, will think of you, which produces recurring and cross-sales. A loyal customer will spread excellent comments about your organization in their circles of influence. This is free advertising. These circles, until recently, were his family, his friends and direct contacts. Today they have expanded enormously thanks to social networks, giving an impressive power of influence to the opinion of a single customer. A couple of decades ago, a customer's opinion was spread to 9 people. Today, to 24, and this number will continue to grow. A loyal customer wants to continue doing business with you, so it will help you to always improve, collaborating when you do a survey, or alerting you to the aspects of your service that you need to improve.A loyal customer is the ideal candidate to offer you new products and services that you bring to the market, or products / services of greater value. It will help you evaluate them, and you will receive them with confidence, because they know who they come from. A loyal customer is willing to pay more for your service than for that of your competition, because for him that plus of your close relationship with him has value. The relationship with the client raises the exit barriers.
Also:
- A service strategy is very difficult for your competition to copy. Because it is a continuous work of interaction with customers, which allows you to understand them better, and react with improvements in your service according to their needs. It is not a formula that someone can steal from you, a service strategy, from the moment it produces satisfied customers, helps you save costs. Disgruntled customers are huge resource consumers and cost drivers for your organization. You have to attend to their claims, you have to give them an answer, compensate them, and try to recover them. A non-economical process, a service strategy also produces loyal employees. The service strategy is woven within the organization. It is teamwork that pays off outwardly.And this work rescues each employee, in every corner of the organization, giving them the value they deserve, because it helps to produce the relationship with the customer. Happy and faithful employees save you: less turnover, less absenteeism, more efficiency A service strategy is a self-sustaining strategy. If each loyal customer recommends you to other potential customers, they also become loyal customers, and the cycle feeds back, you will attract more and more customers, only focusing on satisfying them. Your advertising efforts will be much more effective, because by attracting just one customer, you are earning many more. As a consequence of this phenomenon, you will be able to reduce your advertising spending in the medium term, without fear that your sales will decrease. Because you have generated an automatic and sustainable way to multiply your sales.
In short, a service strategy produces customers who are on your side, because you have put yourself on their side to offer them what they need, with excellence. And what better than to tell the main partner of your organization, the one who injects all the money (your clients), on your own side?
