Changes in Enterprise-Level Service: How Does Your Company Rate?

Expectations have changed. Yesterday, The New York Times had an exceptional op/ed piece on how the definition of “average” has changed. If you’re a company providing enterprise-level service, you might think that the points in the article aren’t relevant to you. But I’ll ask that you think again.

The American workforce is changing, and with it, the expectations of the companies, organizations, and brands that enterprise-level service providers service. It’s no longer a capital sales cycle, multiple months long, followed by a sale, installation and a hand-off to a third party. It’s a shift to relationships – one that spans before, during, and after the sale. It’s a lesson that applies beyond enterprise into the realm of startups (which this company once was) and anyone who strives to build something that has staying power in his or her chosen industry.

The Change: Humans as Resources

Staffing is more than just onboarding and other fancy buzzwords. It’s choosing the people and personalities who will build relationships not only with your customers and co-workers, but your company as well. It used to be that the only people with customer interaction were part of a sales or customer service team. These days, that’s untrue. In hiring, it’s imperative that we shift decisions to hiring those with whom we not only want to have in charge of our customer relationships, but ones who will work towards a collaborative internal work environment. Strong relationships inside a company extend to a stronger brand presence outside of your four walls.

The Change: Customers as Colleagues

Gone are the days of the Mad Men era, where we can take a client out to dinner, buy a few drinks and call it good for the quarter. Today’s environment demands more. When I think about taking on a new client for Solany, I think – How can we go above and beyond for this client? What resources do we have that will benefit them beyond the services we provide? How can we bring even more value to their organization with our relationships – even if it doesn’t mean an extra dime in our pocket?

When we start to think of customers as colleagues, we put everyone on even ground. We’re able to collaborate, share, and help one another build our respective businesses. And it all comes from the understanding that we’re never in competition with one another and no one is superior. It’s just the simple fact that when one of us does well, we both do well.There’s never a losing side to that proposition.

I have more thoughts on how “average” has been blown out of the water, but I’ll leave it with those two changes today. The best thing that can happen at the end of any work day is to realize that we’ve done something to do better business – and shifting the way we think about our business practices can create more days like that.

Posted by: John Cushman on January 26th, 2012 // View Comments
Posted in: News
Tags: Business Productivity, Business Tips, Enterprise Service
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