Preparing to Meet Customers' Services Needs and Requirements in an Uncertain
Economic Environment
By William K. Pollock
For many services organizations, 2003 has started out just as 2002 ended - full of uncertainty in an
unpredictable economy, and an increasingly volatile world. However, despite all of the uncertainty and
volatility, it is important to remember what we all do for a living - that is, we serve our customers by
making their jobs - and their lives - easier to deal with on a day-to-day basis. This is what services
organizations do, and that model has not changed over the past year.
So what does this mean? It means that we, as an industry, still need to provide our services to our
customers - even better, faster and more efficiently than before. The marketplace has no tolerance for
anything less than superior service and support, and if your organization doesn’t already provide it, they’ll
find another organization that does!
Everyday, businesses wrestle with economic downturns and upheavals, staff reductions, fluctuating stock
prices, an unstable global market economy, and all of the business and personal challenges that result
from their ongoing attempt to make everything work together in harmony. What better can we do as an
industry than to provide our products, services and support to our customers in a fashion so welldesigned and executed that we actually make their lives easier just by doing so? No more artificial
"bundles" of services offerings or “lemon-freshened” software packages; no more late response times or
missed deliveries; no more sub-par service performance; no more surprises; and no more excuses!
Today’s business environment demands that services organizations get their respective acts together,
manage their service delivery processes better, and provide a full complement of the types of services
and support that are meaningful to customers.
But, how do we do this? There are many ways - but it will take a lot of work, and you may not be able to
do it all by yourself. First, you will need to take a hard look externally at exactly what your targeted market
base requires from your organization, addressing such questions as:
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What are our customers' specific product, service and support needs and requirements? How do they
differ from our non-customers?
Does our organization's current service and support portfolio match our customers' needs? All of their
needs? Their real needs?
Where are there gaps between our present offerings, and our customers' future needs?
What additional value-add, premium, and/or professional services do our customers require - but
cannot get from their current vendors? (Even from us!)
How are the changes our customers' organizations will be going through change their needs for
service and support in the future?
What vendor options and alternatives do users presently have? What newer options and alternatives
will they have tomorrow?
Who are the leading vendors that are presently supporting our marketplace, and what are their
respective strengths and weaknesses?
Where do we stand with respect to the competition? What will it take for us to make the cut from a
prospect's "long list" to its "short list"?
Why does a customer choose us in the first place? Why do the customers we don't get choose
another vendor? Do we have any" kick-out" factors?
When the dust settles, where do we want our organization to be positioned? In fact, how "dusty" are
we compared to the competition already?
Second, you will also need to take an equally hard look internally to determine whether your
organization's infrastructure, operations and processes are sufficiently in place to attain your - and your
customers' - total service delivery goals, addressing such questions as:
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Are we organized effectively to deliver the right products, services, and support; with the right
features; to the right customer segments?
Is our organizational structure effective in managing all facets of the business? What do we need to
do to make it stronger?
Do we have the right processes in place to deliver everything we promise? How can we best
measure whether they are really working?
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Are our customer support personnel adequately trained - and empowered - to support our customer
base? To provide "knock your socks off" service?
Do we provide our sales, service and tech support personnel with all of the tools they require to get
their jobs done? What more do they need to become more effective?
Do we have all of the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) systems in place that are
needed to run our business? Where are there gaps?
Are we focused enough on the customer? Is our Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
approach good enough - and is it working?
Are we tracking and reporting the right things? Do our managers have all of the data and information
they need to make effective decisions?
Do we have a formal plan for growing our services and support capabilities along with the changing
needs of our customers?
Do we have our internal act together? How can we ensure that everything we do yields a welldefined, positive, and measurable outcome?
In the dozens of times we have conducted one of our joint external (i.e., market/customer) and internal
(i.e., operations and organization) client assessments, we have never failed to uncover the mirror-image
problems and opportunities resulting from the same root causes. In fact, this joint approach is extremely
effective in providing the necessary guidance to the organization for matching its service and support
offerings exactly to the market's needs, and recommending the specific operations, organization, and
processes to deliver them most cost-effectively. Don't make the mistake of focusing too strongly on only
one side of the issue. Your customers will only ultimately be satisfied if you also have the internal
processes and capabilities in place to deliver what they want.
These are turbulent times, and the market has never been more serious about its choices - nor more
educated in its ability to distinguish the leaders from the "wannabes". More users are getting more
information - faster - about your organization - and your competitors’ - than ever before. Through the
Internet, and an increasing number of web sources such as RealMarket Today!, AFSMI's Resource
Guide, crmguru.com, and many others. And, they’re acting upon the information they receive! If your
message is not adequately articulated - and communicated - to the appropriate market targets, you could
be dead in the water before you know it - even if your products and services are actually better than the
competition's! The market is looking for your message, and the worst that can happen is your competition
communicating it to them first - instead of you!
Look around, and you will no longer see any underachievers or “dead wood” competing in the
marketplace. They’re all out of business, or about to disappear - one way or the other. What’s left - or
what will be left, once the dust settles - are solely the true performers - the services organizations that
both “get it” - and “do it”. Be one of the organizations that "gets it" - and goes after it! Don't follow your
competitors - follow the needs and requirements of your customers! And make sure that you utilize all of
the external and internal resources that are available to you!
Until next month, keep your customers satisfied!
Very truly yours,
Bill
William K. Pollock
President
Strategies For GrowthSM
P.O. Box 1024
Westtown, PA 19395
USA
Tel: (610) 399-9717
Fax: (610) 399-9718
E-Mail: wkp@s4growth.com
Website: www.s4growth.com