Most companies involved in service delivery recognise that there are a number of ‘hygiene’ factors such as location, people and systems that are key to making their business successful. However, for companies to really excel they need to achieve 110% customer satisfaction by offering that magic ‘added value’ that will not only retain existing customers but draw in new ones as well.  But just how costly is it to provide that added value?

Every business in the service industry faces the challenge of building turnover whilst retaining its profit margins and of continually reinvesting that profit to retain its competitive edge. For many companies keeping these margins is getting harder and harder. Some take the approach of cutting their prices but this can result in simply devaluing their offering and more significantly, it may also prevent them from being able to provide even an adequate level of service, with the associated risk of customer dissatisfaction and ultimately lost business.

At Networks First, our focus is providing IT network support services through our channel partners to their end user customers and quality rather than price is crucial to our success. Whilst ensuring network uptime is important, even more critical is the quality of response, should there be a problem with a customer’s network, and this takes real investment in every aspect of our service delivery.

For a service provider in the network support industry, working on a low investment business model that builds in high levels of customer churn, means failures in service delivery are inevitable. Indeed, it is estimated some companies are failing to meet upwards of 40% of all service calls but can UK organisations really afford to take such a high risk with the availability of their IT networks and costs associated with network downtime?

Customers need to be educated about such risks.  We recommend that due diligence should not be a one off process prior to selecting a service provider and that regular assessments are undertaken.  Even if the contract is three, or five years, to ensure continuity of service, organisations should check accreditations are still valid and that engineering and spares resources are still adequate.  How many new customers has the supplier attained – have resource levels been scaled up accordingly?  An annual check should be a standard procedure as this is where a lack of ongoing investment in the business really shows and will highlight any possible drop in service delivery standards.

Companies also need to be improving service delivery all the time.  Without innovation, any company can become stagnant and this is especially true for companies striving to offer their customers a better service than their competitors. To attain true service excellence, a business must constantly be looking to evolve and adapt to the changing market and its customers needs. It’s about constantly asking how a process or a procedure can be improved and then, if necessary, making the investment required to do so.  This must be applied to every area of a company and its operations – not just the customer facing part!

Committing to consistently delivering exceptional service to meet and exceed the needs and expectations of partners and customers is always a challenge. However, meet that challenge and both new and existing partners and customers will be willing to grow their businesses with you, resulting in a ‘win win’ situation.

The service industry in the UK needs to put its money where its mouth is!  It’s about time that ‘excellence’ became an aspiration. Yes, it might mean investment but on the other hand we should ask ourselves just what is the cost of not making this investment and can your business afford not to?