It is generally much more difficult for a large organization to raise the bar of its group and go from a certain quality to an outstanding quality, which can be quite easy for the easily adaptable small company.
More satisfied customers and more complex markets are demanding a permanent improvement in the levels of quality and services tending to fully satisfy the required needs, so the trend is to compete or disappear; drawer phrase commonly heard in all business settings.
Then the question we must ask ourselves is: how can we compete in such hostile and difficult scenarios where all goods / services quickly become replaceable? The answer, without fear of being wrong, could be: With Service. Why?
Because service has become today the greatest differentiator par excellence in any market or commercial scenario and for any type of organization, call it profit, non-profit, public or private, industrial or services.
Although service management has great appeal for large, medium and large organizations, many small service companies can also use it effectively. A small businessman has certain problems that a large operation does not have, but also certain advantages.
Remember that being bigger is not being better; Let's think about the dinosaur.
According to some authors, the dinosaur was so large and its nervous system was so slow that if something hit its tail, it would take several seconds for the signal to reach the brain. In a certain sense, the dinosaur represents the Colombian businessman, who wants to grow so slowly that he forgets what is truly important: THE CLIENT.
Being light on your feet can be a significant competitive advantage when you stand up against the big companies. Some disadvantages of being a small organization compared to a large one, can be:
- Generally does not have the benefit of national or international image or name recognition Luxury quality may require a capital investment that exceeds the financial means available Price efficiency much less savings often does not work scale. Errors are generally more costly; Small size is relentless when referring to a negative critical moment of truth. It may be more difficult to attract qualified people, due to the small size of the company it is not appealing to qualified human talents.
On the contrary, some advantages of being a small service business can be:
- There is less organizational inertia; for example, rules and customs. The organization and especially its philosophy can be more easily changed. The product can be changed or repositioned more easily. Leadership is closer to the working people. It is easier to maintain a team spirit and a sense of common purpose, which it translates into being able to fly like GOOSE more easily. You can develop people more personally; in other words, the COACH technique is easier to translate into results.
Another positive aspect of small and medium-sized service organizations is that you can try something new more quickly and know if it works - many of the real innovations in service are started in the hands of small companies. In a small business, one can achieve a level of service quality that exceeds that of larger competitors and thus capture a piece of the market and keep it.
The current challenge of our national market requires defining a service strategy; to get the managers and ultimately all the staff of a certain organization to commit themselves as true fans to satisfy their consumers through quality and services, design products and services consistent with the real expectations of Consumers; This requires investing in a series of elements and constantly monitoring the achievement of goals and that these must always be in constant improvement.
