It’s All About Service

It has finally happened: it is 2020 and your business advantage is all about service. 

Back in 2018, I spoke at Jim Moran Institute Small Business Leadership Conference. My talk was a workshop to focus attention on how customers buy, rather than how businesses sell. 

The theme that year was “It’s all about the customer”. I built my presentation around a 2013 Walker report which stated that by 2020, customer service would outrank price and product in buying decisions. 

And it is 2020 now, so here we are. 

Product and Price

Buyers make decisions based on what they need (product) as well as their available resources (money). 

A buyer will look at a product’s features and capabilities to determine if it solves her problem. 

She will also look at the price, to determine if it fits with her budget and if it allows a return on her investment. 

She is likely to look at several different options. Comparing product features with their prices, she will decide which option offers the best balance. 

Service

But that is not all that a buyer will consider. 

Buyers also expect a certain level of service. In your role as the seller, you want to plan for the whole buying experience:

• What is it like to buy from you? Is it easy? Is it fun?
• How does the client learn to use your product or service? Are you offering the right training and support?
• What are the change options: warranties, upgrades, reviews, ongoing support, and more. 
• When projects come to an end, what is the final deliverable? How does the client move forward after that?

How buyers buy

In 2020, your customers give more importance to the service questions than even the price or the product features. 

While both of those factors remain important, know that your customers’ evaluation is going to give more weight to service factors than anything else, and the better you can speak to your service offerings, the more likely you are to win, and keep, the business. 

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What promise are you making to your clients, and how do you keep it? Learn more about my The Promise program.