As product differentiation becomes more and more difficult in today’s rapidly changing global business environment companies are using service differentiation as a mantra to stay in business. On time delivery, quicker responses to enquiries and faster resolution of customer complaints are some of the strategies used today and surprisingly companies today are also using some of these characteristics as part of their vision statement.
A Service is defined as follows: Any act or performance that one party can offer another that is intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.
The word “intangible” strikes me the most in the above definition of a service. But, do you think this may stand true in today’s changing business environment. Intangibility is a characteristic of a service, which means it cannot be tasted, felt, heard or smelt before being bought.
The above explanation of the characteristic of a service may not be true in today’s business. For example, companies servicing international clients around the globe remotely, offer a pilot project before signing off so that the clients can evaluate their service even before the actual service is produced. Companies also provide references so that clients can get a feel of the quality of service received by another client. Today “humanics” has taken the lead over “mechanics”.
Perishability is yet another characteristic of a service. But, don’t you think an excellent customer experience leaves an imperishable mark on the customer’s mind? Companies today derive more value from existing clients who are delighted with the service they received.
As the differentiators between product and service become more and more transparent, companies are constantly evaluating their processes internally. A product can be checked and evaluated before it is passed on to the customer for consumption. The challenge lies in how a company could make this possible for a service.
A service as we know is produced and consumed at the same time. Therefore, the quality checks need to be initiated simultaneously. This necessarily means that a six sigma process needs to be driven every second to ensure customer delight. This is indeed a difficult task. The only solution: Companies must first develop a clear picture of what they want the customer’s perception of an experience to be and then set a measurement criterion like performance and context clues to support the experience.
Whether it is a product or service, creating an “experience blueprint” is the way to success and differentiation today.
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