SERVICES ARE HOT



In a great article from W.P. Carey’s Center for Services Leadership called “Making Services a  Science – new study finds great interest – and great confusion (http://bit.ly/dmdAgy)” the need for service innovation is being recognized.

‘......more companies than ever are interested in services innovation -- the creation of "transformative" services. More companies than ever are interested in smart services design. More companies than ever are interested in creating service-centric cultures, in leveraging technology to boost services and in creating consistency of service across geographies.’
I am inclined to say ‘finally’, but there is a right time for everything. It is good that more and more companies (and also governments) see the need to add services to their portfolio. And it is also very good that they understand that service business is fundamentally different from product business.
In essence, service business is people business, it is a human being who delivers the service. I always explain that if a product is out of stock you will order it from the factory. Because service business is all about human beings, the incubation time there is minimal 9 months…..
So, yes indeed there is a difference. The quicker you learn and understand this, the quicker you will be able to leapfrog your competition.
‘…….the challenge now is to create "the" model for services success -- a roadmap that can help service-inexperienced companies get started or allow services experts get even better at their craft.’
In my next post I would like to introduce my model, which I call ‘The Services Growth Ecosystem’.
Services are hot, but be aware that you don’t get burned. Take the time and the right resources to build a truly servicable organization!


GROW YOUR PEOPLE, GROW YOUR BUSINESS!

www.theproperway.com

Featured in Alltop


Popular posts from this blog

10 most common leadership shortcomings and how to resolve them

After scrutinizing 360-degree feedback data on over 11,000 leaders and evaluating the 10% considered the least effective, Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman found the 10 most common leadership shortcomings . These are ranked according to the size of the difference between successful and unsuccessful leaders' scores; successful and failed leaders differed most significantly in their energy and enthusiasm.  Please find the listing below as well my suggestions on how to change them.   1.     Lack of energy and enthusiasm If you do your job just because you have to, if it feels like it is something you should do (rather than would like to do), then it drains your energy. If you are a leader mainly because you are attracted to the status, the power and the money, then you will lack the necessary enthusiasm. Your heart is not connected, so it just is an economic and rational activity. This activity is not fuelled by your enthusiasm. If you do work, which you love to do, if you foll
Read more

Do you feel like you’re running around in a straitjacket?

Image
  If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life.  ~ Abraham Maslow Do you feel like you’re running around in a straitjacket? Or swimming in ice hockey gear? You probably think this sounds ridiculous. Still, that is what we all do, most of the time. We let beliefs limit us.  We believe that we are not good enough. We believe that we cannot change or grow. We believe everything that mass-media tells us. Most of the time, fear is driving our behavior . And fear definitely makes us risk-averse. When I ask people whether they are using their full potential, they look at me in a sad way. They immediately feel the pain of not living up to their own capabilities. Many people are suffering because they feel not seen and not good enough. As a consequence, they lack self-confidence and experience stress, burnout, depression or worse.  Why is this the case?  It is crucial to understand that parents, teach
Read more

AMAZON’S Backlog in Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company

Image
Last week I did read an article in TechCrunch that Amazon now accepts American Express membership rewards points for purchases on Amazon.com. Well this is good news, I thought, as I have quite some points to use. So, I logged into the specific page on Amazon to link both accounts. I just had to fill in a few details regarding my American Express account and then hit the last button ‘Link rewards account’. But........ nothing happened, I expected a confirmation page which tells me that everything is linked now, but no reaction at all. I could only see that my cursor was back at the place where I first provided my details. So, I tried again and again, but every time no result. Pff, this was frustrating. While I was so happy with the possibility of buying books from my points. What to do next? I had to get in touch with customer service. This is where we get in an area where there is a huge opportunity for improvement. It is very difficult to find a way to email/contact customer serv
Read more