Give Your Customers Your Heads as Well as Your Hands

If you want to clearly differentiate your business and earn your increased revenues and customer loyalty, give your customers your heads as well as your hands. Help your technicians realize the service that they provide when they bring to the customers’ attention those things that your firm can do to help that customer be better off.

The last several blogs have been dedicated to discussing the role of the service technician when they take the initiative to identify and discuss actions that they believe the customer could or should take to improve their operations in some way. When the technician brings to the attention of their customers, those actions they can offer that will measurably help the customer be better at what they do, they provide a valuable service. It is a service that is every bit as important as the technician’s ability to repair or maintain things.

Unfortunately, most firms perceive and describe these proactive discussions with customers as selling and not serving. As I explained in previous blogs, this viewpoint limits their opportunity for growth and their ability to differentiate their service from their competitors. In my last blog, I looked at how by changing our perception of these proactive discussions from one of a selling role to one of serving, a service organization can experience a dramatic improvement in all aspects of the service provided. This time, I will look at how a service business can use this approach to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

It is interesting to note that service firms that see the role of recommending products and services by technicians as selling, don’t tell their customers about what they are doing. I suspect that the reason for this is that it is difficult to communicate the value of their technician’s actions if the reason they are “selling” is to simply increase revenues for the service company. Imagine how impactful the following statement would be to an existing or would-be customer. “Dear Mrs. Customer. I want you to know that we have trained our technicians to be better at selling and more observant about what we can do for you so that we can increase the amount of money we make from your organization.” Not very compelling! Now I am being a bit dramatic here, but the point I am making is that it is hard to put a positive spin on an action by the technicians, which by design, is intended to grow more revenues for the service provider. As a result, the service company likely doesn’t broadcast what they are doing and ends up engaging in a form of “stealth selling” by their technicians. And to me, that is an opportunity lost.

When the role of identifying actions that the service company can take to help the customer operate more effectively is regarded and treated as a service, then it opens up an opportunity to differentiate the overall service provided – including how it is communicated to the customer. The focus changes from how the customer can help us achieve our goals to how we can better help the customer achieve their goals. We should be taking every opportunity to broadcast what our technicians are doing to our customers and prospects alike. It should be a point of differentiation for us. For example, imagine your salesperson promoting the services of your company in a competitive situation. Rather than simply saying what every one of their competitors will say, they can communicate the unique value they bring through the actions of their technicians. The conversation might go something like this: “At ABC Service, we give you our heads as well and our hands. Our technicians are expert in their field and they are in a unique position to observe how your business is working. We want them to get to know your goals and objectives and we want them to keep these in mind as they are conducting their duties. If they see something that will make a measurable improvement to your business, we ask them to bring these to your attention. That way, you can make informed decisions that will impact factors such as your profitability, efficiency, quality, etc. If you would allow me, I would like to show you the impact this approach has provided to our existing customers and what our current customers have to say about it.”

If you are encouraging your technicians to look for ways you can provide a higher level of service to your customers, don’t keep it to yourself. Shout out what you are doing from the rooftops and differentiate your service from all of your competitors.

I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.”

– Nelson Mandela