Skip to main content

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. 



-----

Next post:  client buy their own parts?

-----
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

why transform?

Why do I want to change, who said anything was wrong with my stack of papers and sea of Excel files?   We solve problems, that is a key characteristic of any successful service organization, if it isn't broke why fix it?   Often, when discussing a transformation from paper or cobbled together systems to a cohesive digital approach, folks struggle with the gap between what they currently do and how digital tools can help.   You really need to look at where the pain points are in your organization and how these compare to your business objectives.   Consider writing down these points on the whiteboard in no particular order, spend a few days shuffling and consolidating into a prioritized list.   Once you have the "why" and the "what" identified, the old remaining step is "how".   Some of the most popular observations over the years have been; Slipping through the cracks :   you know, not the major muscle movements, instead those little i...
Post a Comment
Read more

expert at everything...not a problem

Well... I would say sometimes there certainly is a perceived notion that one person is an expert at everything. For the worker "everything" may be defined as the specific area in which you were hired or are constantly scheduled. Our opinions are frequently influenced off of past experience, or information we've received from their coworkers. Unfortunately this only gives us partial insight to that workers expertise and often is limited to their most recent history. Narrowly focused accounting is made of the skills that this individual possess. Come on, can't we figure out a way to leverage all of the skills of a particular worker? One of the challenges has always been that relationship between the activities which need to be accomplished and the myriad skills of individuals within your workforce. In addition, even if you could inventory and get a pretty good handle on the skill sets, they are constantly changing (with any luck) and thus the ineffective process of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

entusiastic about preventative maintenance

Why do I really care if my field technicians are enthusiastic or not? When you look at a person's work output, as directly related to workforce sciences, you come up with three primary ingredients required to achieve your desired results.   These ingredients are; attitudes, attributes, and capabilities and when mixed properly with enabling tools can yield unbelievable outputs. So what does any of this have to do with routine maintenance? If your maintenance routines actually become way too routine then pretty soon performance will be replaced with complacency. In order to keep any piece of equipment running as trouble-free as possible the maintenance performed, and the thoroughness of the inspection and tasks at hand, have a direct impact on the asset's life expectancy.   There are some strategies that help service organizations keep the enthusiasm at all-time highs. Switch techs from time to time :   One of the best ways to ensure maintenance is being performed...
Post a Comment
Read more