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Competing on Service: Eleven Ways to Beat the Competition by ‘Hugging’ Your Customers

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The U.S. economy is still in a deep funk, and for many small business owners that means business isn’t exactly booming. Forced to do more with much less, the small businesses that have managed to survive and even thrive during these tough times have recognized one important factor: You can’t always compete on price, but you can compete on service. And the best thing about great customer service is that providing it doesn’t cost you an extra penny.

When your competition is scrounging for customers, you have to hold yours close, and that starts with great customer service.

Today’s small business owners need to understand that cutting costs will not save their business. Remember, customers are concerned about their own financial security. When they walk into a business, they need to feel cherished and special. They need to be ‘hugged’ by great customer service. Customers don’t expect to get bottom-of-the-barrel prices everywhere they go, but they do expect to be treated with respect.

Great customer service doesn’t just happen. It starts with employees who have been trained in the science of service.

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About the Author

Edward D. Hess is author of Growing an Entrepreneurial Business: Concepts & Cases and is a professor of business administration and Batten Executive-in-Residence at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. He is the author of nine books, over 60 cases, and over 60 articles. His work has appeared in over 200 media outlets around the world including CNBC, Fox Business News, Dow Jones Radio, WSJ Radio, MSNBC Radio, NPR, Forbes, Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, CFO magazine, Financial Executive, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Big Think, the Washington Post, and Financial Times. His book Smart Growth: Building an Enduring Business by Managing the Risks of Growth was named a 2010 Top 25 Business Book for Business Owners by Inc. magazine.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 61 – An Interview with John Maxwell, author of The 5 Levels of Leadership

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 61 – An Interview with John Maxwell, author of The 5 Levels of Leadership explores the five level of leadership, how our leadership appears differently to different individuals, and why there appears to be a growing shortage of leaders today. During our discussion, John Maxwell, author of The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential, shares with us his insights and experiences regarding:

  • the five levels of leadership everyone must go through on their leadership development journey
  • the difference between the popularized ‘level five leader’ and an individual who reaches what John defines as the fifth level of leadership
  • how leaders may appear to function at different leadership levels to different people and whether or not a leader should strive to achieve a level five leadership relationship with everyone
  • the leadership level most individuals operate at and how this contributes to the sense that there is a shortage of leaders today

Additional Information

In addition to the outstanding insights John shares in The 5 Levels of Leadership and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from his website, www.JohnMaxwellOnLeadership.com.   John’s book, The 5 Levels of Leadership, can be purchased by clicking here.

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About the Author

John Maxwell, author of The 5 Levels of Leadership, is the founder of EQUIP and the John Maxwell Company, a leadership development firm. Each year he speaks to leaders at Fortune 500 companies, foreign governments, the National Football League, the United States Military Academy at West Point, and the United Nations. In total, John has trained more than 5 million leaders worldwide. To read John’s complete biography, click here.

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Recommended Resource – The Talent Masters: Why smart leaders put people before numbers

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The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers
by Bill Conaty and Ram Charan

About the Reference

The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers by Bill Conaty and Ram Charan provides unprecedented insight to the people development programs of several legendary organizations including General Electric, Proctor & Gamble, and Novartis. Conaty and Charan illustrate in great detail the specific programs these organizations use to develop talent and plan for and execute on succession plans; including the behind-the-scenes consideration of organizational, cultural, and operational impacts such changes incur. They also share their experience-based insights on the critical personal traits and organizational supports needed for succeeding leaders to excel in their new positions.

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven Contributors like The Talent Masters because of its in-depth, behind-the-scenes insights to the talent management practices of globally recognized ‘leadership factories.’ Many case studies highlight the mechanics of these organizations’ programs but Conaty and Charan present the intimate executive discussions and thought processes on personnel development and succession that only insiders possess. This book captures the nuance of thought that makes these processes work so well at creating some of the world’s most sought after leaders.

The in-depth real-world business experience of leading companies presented in The Talent Masters makes this book on personnel development a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Corporate Cultures – Supervisor Initiated, Documented Processes Controlled Environment

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The Supervisor Initiated, Documented Processes Controlled Environment represents a move toward standardized, centralized control. This culture set benefits from greater local control than the leader initiated organization while still maintaining a degree of oversight that enhances standardization and centralized direction setting. Subsequently, organizations where work activities are supervisor initiated and controlled by documented processes tend to exhibit a very limited degree of creativity and flexibility.

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StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective – Socialization of Medical Care

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The socialization of medicine is not a new discussion. Indeed, government involvement in healthcare has increased for decades. Regardless of the noble intentions of those desiring ‘healthcare for all,’ economics reveals that in the end everyone suffers.

The following video is that of a lecture made by Nobel Laureate and Economist Milton Friedman. In his discussion, Dr. Friedman reveals how government involvement in the healthcare system will necessarily diminishes care and the industry’s prosperity. By extension, Dr. Friedman illustrates how prosperity is similarly destroyed in any industry in which the government becomes heavily involved.

Dr. Friedman’s assertions are not political. His point of view is founded on sound analysis of the socialization of medicine in other countries.

The purpose of this editorial is not to suggest a specific course of action. Instead it’s purpose is to suggest a need to closely monitor the level of government involvement within your industry and to consider the propensity for involvement as a risk to your business’s future.