Dwight Eisenhower was the one who said, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”
Category Archives: Strategy
Jan
10
Sep
22
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Understanding value from the customer’s perspective
No matter what product or service you provide, it is the customer who defines value. Hence, to succeed, it’s essential to see value from the customer’s perspective. If not, you will not understand the actual needs of the customer.
Apr
10
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Using Service to Create a Competitive Edge
Many organizations think that the only way to grow their business is to find new customers. But often, the best source for growth is sitting right in front of you: existing customers. Finding new customers aids business growth but here’s an important fact: Studies show that the probability of selling to an existing happy customer is up to 14x higher than the probability of selling to a new customer. See Figure 1. Figure 1 Hence it makes perfect sense to take […]
Mar
11
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Understanding the Service-Profit Chain
The natural concept of chains is that they are as strong as their links. Hence to make a chain strong, the links must be made strong. The service-profit chain is based on this concept. A theory evolved by a group of researchers from Harvard University in the nineties, it dissects the levers that translate good service into profitability. These levers are represented by links in an eight-link chain as depicted below. The service Profit Chain The service-profit chain works this […]
Nov
2
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The importance of service processes
Put simply, a service process is a set of defined tasks needed to complete a given business service activity, including who is responsible for completing each step, when, and how they do so. It is important to note that service processes are not just the processes at the point where the customer receives the service. Service organizations that consistently meet both cost and quality targets know that they must manage the chain of processes from start to finish rather than […]
Aug
3
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Marketing in today’s economy: Plan & spend or hide & go bust
There aren’t many positives about doing business in a challenging economy. Business is tough, cash-flow is tight, and consumers rein in spending. Thus many business leaders react accordingly. Anticipating reduced sales, they cut back on variable costs, including marketing, in order to deliver on their financial expectations. It’s indeed expected that when business slows, you have to cut costs. But is marketing simply another expense, or is it an investment? Ask yourself this: if you stop marketing, how will you […]
Jun
7
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Service as competitive advantage
Increasing competition, declining sales and more service-aware customers are putting pressure on organizations to rethink and improve the levels of service that they offer. Hence, many organizations are recognizing that by improving the service provided, they can make significant and sustainable gains in the marketplace. Service and service delivery can be, and increasingly are, a competitive weapon. As highlighted in our previous write-up, “Understanding the service concept”, the effect of good service on creating valuable customers, increasing customer retention and […]
Apr
6
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4 strategies for marketing in a challenging economy
In a challenging economy, consumers become value oriented, set stricter priorities, and reduce their spending. Although it’s wise to contain costs, this is not the time for your organization to stop spending on marketing. Rather it’s the time to put customer needs under the microscope to understand how they have changed, and nimbly adjust your strategies, tactics, and product offerings to the new reality. Organizations may forget that, in prosperous times, rising sales are not caused by clever advertising and […]
Mar
22
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5 steps that buyers go through to make decisions
A successful marketing highly depends on understanding the decision making process of your customer. The more you understand this process, the better you can align your marketing strategy with it. The following are the steps a typical customer goes through to make buying decisions: Step 1: Do I Want it Concept: The first step is when a customer expresses some interest in a product. This interest can be captured using a spectrum between two extremes; desire and need. Examples: • […]
Jan
22
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Importance of Strategic Planning
In the last post titled “To become highly, focus on these activities”, there was a recommendation for us to focus more on activities that are important but not urgent. Strategic planning is a good example of such activities. Many of the day-to-day operational struggles we face in our organizations had their seeds sown in the past, when we failed to plan. Of course, no one can predict the future, everyday has its own operational struggles but the fact remains that […]
