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can you stomach differentiation?


First and foremost when I think about differentiation in the service business I immediately think about ways to create additional value for our clients. The trick is to create this value in such a way that it is easy for your organizations culture to adopt, affordable to implement, and very difficult to replicate by your competitors. One of the challenges within service businesses is not only finding the time but finding the right opportunity to create differentiated ideas. The fact of the matter is that service is a blocking and tackling business. We often get so mired down in the details, that at the end of the day there is little room left for conceptualizing and visualizing out-of-the-box approaches. Make no mistake though, if you can figure out a way within your organization to carve out the time required to allow those creative minds in your employ to express themselves, you will come up with tools and processes which create value and differentiation.



The size of a service business has its' pros and cons. Larger organizations are often afforded the luxury to be able to leverage individuals focused purely on looking in to the business from the outside and creatively coming up with solutions which can differentiate you in the marketplace. However, not all is lost if you are not one of these large service organizations.  Some will start with the time-tested suggestion box. Unfortunately these mechanisms often fall short on capturing the essence of the request and more importantly fail to put these requests into some actionable format. Instead consideration should be made to establish a formal ideation process.  Tools put in place designed to capture new ideas and alter existing ideas is a great first step.  Take the time to identify, within your organization what you are trying to achieve, either in the form of strategic or operational objectives, goals, etc.  Align the ideation process directly with these over-arching objectives and you will not only produce an openness to share ideas but also insure that efforts are properly threaded with the business. 



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Next post:  client buy their own parts?

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