Strategic Service Management

It’s that time of year again. MillwardBrownOptimor have published their Top 100 Brandz ranking, and corporate marketers are either celebrating or justifying in boardroom around the globe.

But should marketers alone take in these findings? Or does customer perception break down any barrier between Service and Marketing that may exist on Org Charts?

If you are in either Marketing or Service, I recommend you take in the “Trends” on page 10 of the report. What are its key SSM implications?

As people stay in during the recession, home shopping / home services are on the rise. Not only does that mean more deliveries, but also a greater need for repairs as users invest, for example, in coffee machines to cut down on trips to coffee houses. Do you deliver? Have you optimised your routing and scheduling? Is your parts planning reliable? Do you have the required visibility to exceed your customers’ expectations in your management of vans and technicians?

People buying equipment for home use, or putting off major new investments (which goes a long way to explaining the 22% hit suffered by the car segment), opens up an opportunity for service parts pricing. How are you positioned to take advantage of it?

Apple grew 14%; BlackBerry 100%. Where once we had phones, now we have… handheld life organisers. This trend is supported by growth in network brands: Vodafone is up by 46%, AT&T by 67%, O2 by 36%. We are increasingly connected, which (when managed…) benefits our efficiency (in and out of the office). But it also means our expectations rise. Why can’t a delivery be scheduled more accurately? Why can’t a tech turn up with the right part? We are all more aware of technology’s potential – and accept no excuses for failure to leverage it.

Such increased technical sophistication also means we are often happy to fix minor problems ourselves – a scenario that expedites repair time and dramatically reduces costs for all involved. Do you have the technology to remotely support your customers?

At Servigistics, we have long underlined product commoditisation. Branding is a critical path to differentiation. Is it achieved through good marketing? Is it achieved through good service?

Let’s look at it this way: I would challenge anybody to achieve differentiation in 2009 without good marketing or good service. Which is why SSM goes beyond managing your Service operation, and encompasses your entire business. And, in your quest to win and retain customers, you create fictitious barriers between Service and Marketing at your peril.

best,

g.o.s.

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

The good news is… looks like I’m not alone.

The bad news is…

Well, come on – people shouldn’t be dreaming dreams in 140 characters, or dream of the new iPhone hardware as they ponder whether to splash out or not. That’s not what the resting hours are for.

This is what happens to us when we overdose on technology. It happens to all of us, at some point – and the effects are clear to see. Because, fundamentally, we are hunter/gatherers, not e-mailers or twitterers. And, at least in our sleep, we should revert to our fundamental nature.

Our fundamental nature… are there aspects of it that we may want to dust off for the workplace? Or would that simply go against centuries of evolution theory?

Some of the most successful sales people I’ve worked with don’t appear to have embraced the great technological revolution. Their world doesn’t appear to move any faster now than it did five, ten years ago; they still listen and observe, like old-fashioned hunters. But wise hunters, who know that it will be easier to gather the prey when it approaches them rather than to chase it round in circles. (And they have embraced the good technology bits, by the way – just not the distractions.)

In a world where the divide between sales and service is increasingly blurred, similar key considerations apply. Sure, techs have to be more proactive. But, in getting the job done, they should never jeopardise the possibility to take in the environment around them, and consider how they may turn it to their advantage.

If today we live in the iWorld, then the ‘i’ can often be seen as standing for ‘instant’. And when great service is instant, everybody is happy – especially the customer. But, when a compromise has to be made between great service and instant service… compromise on quality at your peril. And, once you’ve got job done as quickly as possible, to keep your customers happy – why miss out on an opportunity to spend five minutes finding out what’s going on at a site? Why not try and gather further info that will increase your colleagues’ (and company’s) effectiveness?

If that’s what being hunters and gatherers is all about, then a “back to basics” approach (supported by technology for storage and analysis) is not necessarily a bad thing…

April 16^th, 2009

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

About a month ago, Managing Automation publisher Heather Holt-Knudsen wrote a piece called “Project 1985″. The article is both light-hearted and stimulating: in it, Holt-Knudsen sets out to live for a week without post-1985 technology (although, within a few lines, such total ban was lowered to using phone ahead of e-mail, not using one-line replies in e-mail, no texting, and only tweeting once a day).

The project never actually took off. In Part 2 of the article, Holt-Knudsen recognises that the issues that frustrate her about technology today do not actually lie within technology itself, rather in the way we have allowed ourselves to become addicted to it. As she points out, “Perhaps all I need to do is ease up versus completely give it up. It’s like what any successful diet requires: portion control.”

Information overload is a danger to which we are all exposed. Whereas in 1985 obtaining data was the key challenge, today differentiating what holds value from what does not is often the main issue. So, when technology does what technology should do (and lends a helping hand), it should be welcome. Turning our back on technology for the sake of it is not progress.

Back in 1985, my interaction with IT was limited to Nintendo handheld games such as “Donkey Kong”. But I remember with equal fondness University life, and research undertaken at library desks with paper books (remember them?) as Internet terminals were only just emerging - the nearest to a computerised search was the process through which you located the book you needed. So, for all the cursing I occasionally do when my Inbox is overflowing, I am forever grateful that I have the opportunity to do what I do at this moment in history - in an age when technologies are at their most interactive, interoperable (hey, when I started out on a Macintosh LC II I couldn’t share files with the rest of the world…) and deliver measurable results.

The same principles apply in Service. We sometimes curse at talking heads and IVR menus, longing for that old-fashioned human touch instead of technological abuse. At the other end of the relationship, somebody may well be counting the beans and the saved costs, though not necessarily the lost customers. But the technology in itself is rarely flawed: rather, we should marvel at what techies all over the world have achieved, and ensure their output is channeled in a value-adding fashion. When it improves productivity and the customer relationship, when it increases visibility over the Service operation and reduces costs, when it improves efficiency throughout the supply chain… basically, when it makes life easier for everybody involved, then technology has delivered upon its timeless promise. That’s the dessert we all wait for.

Now - where did I put that Rubik’s cube? Because let me tell you - you couldn’t find the solution online back in 1985…

By Shannon Rentner, Director, PR, Servigistics

Interactive Marketing is cool, innovative, slick, forward-thinking, and creative.  B2C companies that employ interactive marketing on their websites, in their ad campaigns, marketing collateral, etc. make companies with static websites and non-interactive collateral [what is the opposite of interactive?] look like Sunday school teachers from the 1970’s using flannel boards to illustrate Bible stories.

Consider some of these inventive examples of interactive marketing:

• Real women’s stories about financial planning for Wachovia Securities. What a refreshing way to present the client case study: http://www.planforwhatsnext.com/
• Remember Harold and the Purple Crayon? UPS tapped this magical marker idea for their whiteboard campaign where the long-haired guy illustrates what “brown can do for you”: http://whiteboard.ups.com/
• What if you live to be 100? How will you take care of yourself? Genworth Financial created the Genworth100, a website that featured the oral history of several centenarians as a way to pitch their financial planning services.

It’s entertaining, eye-catching, fun and informative.

But for B2B transactions, turn off the talking head.

When I’m sitting at my computer at the office doing research or evaluating potential vendors, I want the flannel board approach - let’s be old school: get me right to the point - something I can quickly read and process. Clear, Concise, and Direct.

Don’t make me sit there and listen to some dumb talking head spewing fluff. When I want a client case study, I’ll click on it and then it better be a good story illustrating what the potential vendor can do.  Otherwise, I’ve lost patience and will move on to the next vendor.

How does this relate to service?

The other day I was driving home from work and saw a car with ricohteknoforce emblazoned across the side and rear. So, when I returned to work, I decided to visit the website to see if this was another Geek Squad post-sale service play.  The answer: yes and no - more of a B2B IT outsourcing play.  Nevertheless, I was completely rattled by the talking man. I just wanted to navigate the page to see what Ricohteknoforce offers. http://www.ricohteknoforce.com/

Seriously, no one listens to it. So just save him for later. If I want to hear someone speak to me, allow me to click on it - don’t throw him at me while I’m sitting in an open office and pressed for time.  Consumers, on the other hand, have the time and privacy away from work to enjoy such leisure viewing and listening activities. I don’t.

But I also rip off the wrapping paper from my presents rather than slowly untying a bow, unpeeling tape, and neatly unfolding the pretty paper. Those people drive me nuts.

What do you think?

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

Greetings from Paris.

That always sounds extravagant, doesn’t it? Well, don’t get carried away. I have a checkered history with accommodation in this beautiful city, and tonight’s tipped the balance the wrong way.

I am here for a two-day User Conference with our European Pricing customers. And ‘here’, more specifically, is the Radisson SAS near CDG: convenient, practical, respected. The sort of place you associate with good service; an impression that I have had reinforced in the past few weeks, during which I’ve dealt from afar with the hotel’s Commercial Department to get the event set up. Nothing has been too much trouble for them.

Then came tonight. I cleared customs, and duly waited for my shuttle bus at Terminal 2B. It’s a Sunday night, so I appreciate the service will be relatively infrequent. Some thirty minutes later though, having seen the Hilton’s shuttle go past me for the fourth or fifth time, it’s hard not to wonder.

A couple of hotel guests waiting with me are on the phone to the hotel, who assures them it’s ten minutes away. Trouble is, they had done that 25′ earlier - equally abruptly. Now it’s bad enough when expectations are mismanaged by the local pizza delivery joint: but this is a hotel brand that prides itself on service, leveraging it to charge a premium price. Does it know what’s going on? If not, why not? If so, why the blatant misinformation?

In the end, I waited 50′ for the shuttle. How long the other two guests waited, I daren’t imagine because when it finally arrived, there was only one seat available. Since they were travelling together, they kindly offered it to me. They weren’t as docile towards the driver or the hotel reception, over the phone. The waiting had been bad; the deceit, unnecessarily aggravating. I wouldn’t want to be in the driver’s shoes as he heads back to pick them up from here, which he seemed to be doing - even after Reception had guaranteed them another shuttle was already en route and would be with them five minutes after ‘mine’…

Whatever you sell, your customers are not idiots. Most customers tend to have greater patience than you may think. They accept things go wrong - indeed, fix their problems well and their loyalty will be higher than had they never existed. That’s why Dell showcases its Enterprise Command Center to illustrate how it helps its customers: because doing so exceptionally well is a true competitive differentiator.

What customers don’t accept is being lied to. That’s just insulting. While it’s no more insulting than it ever was, it is easier to get found out, since there are just too many sources of information available for customers not to verify what they’re being told. And it’s too easy for customers to share their dissatisfaction within minutes, as you are proving by reading this.

If you can’t always be truly exceptional, at least always be exceptionally true.

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

When the company that’s owned the top spot in the Interbrand Global Brand List for the past eight years makes a move, others follow. Or, at the very least, they take note.

Coca-Cola has released… no, not its secret formula, but the carbon footprint of its various brands. That’s right: we now know that “a 330ml can of Coca-Cola sold in Great Britain has a carbon footprint of 170 grams and the same sized can of ‘diet Coke’ or ‘Coke Zero’ has a footprint of 150 grams. A 330ml glass bottle of ‘Coca-Cola’ has a footprint of 360 grams”.

So - what does that mean? Does it make Coca-Cola green, because it’s facing up to its corporate social responsibility and working on programs to reduce its footprint? Given what happened when it tried to improve its formula in the 1980s, could this be a key strategy for the company - as it leaves the product alone and looks at how CSR can enhance the brand? That was the view the Chief Executive took last year…

Will you soon be surrounded by analysts measuring your company’s carbon footprint? Or is that already the case? Of course, not everybody’s customers react as strongly as Coke’s when products are tweaked - most welcome changes. And, in companies where funds are harder to come by, product managers are still likely to shout louder. Yet this announcement is unlikely to remain isolated… would you bet against carbon footprint becoming an integral part of Annual Reports, alongside EPS and ROCE, in ten years’ time? That’s the way the Environmental Protection Agency is heading in the US…

But don’t panic just yet. Service can play a major role in reducing carbon footprint - all along boosting profitability. Cutting unnecessary trips through routing and scheduling and by ensuring techs have the right part, reducing inventory levels, improving remote support… it’s only natural to look at this from a business perspective, and to how it improves first time fill- and fix-rates, or calls/day. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But you know what? There’s nothing wrong in acknowledging that it cuts down your carbon footprint, either. That’s when it all starts tying together. Neat, eh?

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

For anybody who has just landed on Earth from a far-flung planet, here’s a very brief (and over-simplistic) overview of global economics:

• Once upon a time, people made things for people who would buy them. This was called the ‘Manufacturing Economy’;
• Then, as raw materials and labour, got expensive, people slowed down on making things, and spent more time selling things you could not actually touch or feel, such as financial products. This was called the ‘Service Economy’.
• Then a lot of people who had sold a lot of financial products suddenly realised there was a big hole in the economy, and thought that maybe making things was not that bad, after all. But people across the Service Economy had learned some valuable lessons about looking after customers once things had been made, too. So then…

Well, then is now. The next stage is the one we’re writing now. How is today’s history looking?

Our children, and our grandchildren, will be the ultimate of judges of that - if not in the classrooms, then certainly with their payslips, which will determine how many of our “financial programs” they find themselves funding. But some trends are already emerging - and could prove valuable for any Manager.

• Successful OEMs will need to master both Manufacturing and Service, providing both quality products and after-sales services. As Pierfrancesco Manenti at “Manufacturing Insights” predicts, “Manufacturers will enhance their capabilities as providers of services”. Excelling at either manufacturing or service may suffice in certain B2C industries, where replacement costs are ludicrously low; but they are the exception. And no strategy should be based upon exceptions;
• Successful OEMs must not forget what made them successful in the first place - and continue to leverage their core expertise while building new strengths around them. But that need not entail developing those new capabilities in-house - as we saw previously, collaboration is an effect of the downturn that has benefits to contribute in times of growth, too. And outsourcing / acquiring skills is nothing to be ashamed about if it allows companies to deliver excellence in the fields that made them leaders

Balancing the quest for in-house improvement with the ability to identify areas where procuring those capabilities externally is the wiser option will be a hallmark of any successful manager in the current downturn, during which ROI will be a key decision influencer. But this is a valuable skill that should not be thrown out with the doom and gloom when the economy starts to recover. Servigistics is a software solutions company, recognised as a leader in its field - a field that, while we may expand, we will generally stick to. Yet there are manufacturers who seek to maximise the value of their SSM operation by developing in-house solutions, when the cost of a Servigistics implementation could probably be covered by the savings realised in the additional development time of a bespoke product. I’ll leave you with that thought.

By Sebastian Urbina, product manager, Servigistics

On a commuter flight one Friday night from NYC to Atlanta, I ended up speaking to the two people sitting next to me.  That should worthy of note in and of itself. I generally limit the comments to my row-mates to “Excuse me” as I head to the restroom if I’m on an inside seat and “You’re Welcome” if I’m the one inconvenienced by their bodily needs.  I’ve had overnights flights in which we haven’t even reached that level of communication due to the  “don’t bug me I’m on the plane and don’t want to know your life story” approach.

This time, my row-mates were two consultants from competing software companies.  I originally thought it was funny and tried making fun of the situation, but they didn’t seem to care.  Both were road warriors with years of experience as the Monday morning to Friday afternoon.  Me, a former cubicle monkey converted into a stay-at-home-laptop-on-lap-coach worker, was eager to hear the war stories.  However, one of the consultants, a married woman, was talking about her husband.  Normally, this would be enough for me to tune out the conversation as old woman’s gossip, but this was interesting.

She was talking about how her husband, a non road-warrior, complained when airplanes were late and plans went awry.  She would just tell him to relax and not worry about it.  Apparently, the discussions went on ad nauseum and the husband simply could not understand how she would not be bothered by incompetence.

It wasn’t until he became a fellow road-warrior himself that he understood her patience and stopped complaining.  She explained that the experience of being on flights so much taught her that “stuff happens” so it no longer caused her grief or stress. Once her husband started travelling he developed the same tolerance.

The actual underlying problem here is not that airlines have poor service.  (As someone once stuck in the airport at the beginning of a month long back-packing trip through Southeast Asia, I can assure you they do.)   The problem here is that expectations are poorly managed.

People buy airline tickets expecting a service, a service that includes on time arrival.  That is why airlines have schedules.  Services based on a schedule are generally controlled tightly, just as anyone trying to get on a German train arriving at a station 2 minutes too late can tell you.  We do understand that things happen; however, we believe these are rare events that generally do not affect us - especially if we only travel sporadically. Now the veteran air commuter had enough experience to know that she had to reset her expectations.  When things went wrong she expected it and, thu,s was not fussed or stressed.  She is a much happier person than her husband was as her expectations were in-line with the service offered.

This got my thinking into the wider range of services.  I started feeling that most angry customers are probably a result of improper expectations.  If you buy a 30 year old car and the radiator falls out are you upset?  You probably are somewhat, but less than if you had just bought a brand new car and the same thing happens.

Lets analyze this situation, in both cases you are buying a car (new to you) and it breaks down shortly afterwards.  The difference in reaction is complex, but it is fully based on your expectations.  You do not expect a new car to break down but you could expect a very old car to have problems.  The person who bought the new car will cause havoc and complain about the quality of product.  This drop in customer service can have serious consequences for a company.

However, it is not enough to simply try and reset expectations.  Lower service expectations come with a drop in revenue.  There is a joint Toyota-GM car factory in northwest United States.  The cars coming from the factory are identical but the GM cars were selling for less money purely based on the brand on the car.  This was a result of the expectation placed on the car based on the manufacturer.

This type of situation created a conundrum: you need high expectations to ensure a price premium, but they can’t be too high or those expectations will result in terrible costumer service, which would undermine the process.

Managing expectations should thus become paramount for any company.  Set them to high and bad costumer service will skyrocket; set them too low and you will end up being priced down.   I guess the obvious solution is to set high expectations and deliver on them.

My row-mate would not have had discussions with her husband about the pathetic state of the industry, if the industry had been able to deliver on the costumer’s expectations by simple changes unrelated to weather, like increasing flight times (giving greater margin of error) and increasing maintenance cycles (reducing unexpected mechanical problems).  Guess we know what the industry values.

By Shannon Rentner, Senior Manager, Servigistics

Forrester Research just published two reports in December that demonstrate how critical customer experience is a company’s competitiveness.

While I can’t include the entire report here, if you have Forrester access, you should check them out:

• December 12, 2008. Customer Experience In A Down Economy, by Harley Manning and Moira Dorsey
• December 12, 2008. The Customer Experience Index, 2008 by Bruce D. Temkin

Some key points that we’ve been making have been verified in these reports. For example, in the “Customer Experience in a Down Economy” report, Forrester affirms that there is a direct connection between “a great customer experience and increased revenues.”

In the “Customer Experience Index, 2008,” Forrester reports that a good customer experience fosters customer loyalty. While that may sound banal, customer loyalty translates into additional purchases by the customer. In fact, according to the March 24, 2008, “The Business Impact of Customer Experience” report, “customer experience quality could cause a swing of $242 million for a large bank and $184 million for a large retailer.”

While banking doesn’t require service parts or service techs, a retailer just might. Consider once again, Best Buy, the nation’s largest electronics retailer, with $44 billion in annual revenue. While it, too, is getting pounded by the drop in consumer spending, Fitch Ratings, a leading global rating agency committed to providing the world’s credit markets with independent, timely and prospective credit opinions, says that Best Buy’s reputation for outstanding service that helped it become the number one electronics retailer will help it weather the storm.

[The day after this post, The New York Times reported that Best Buy will have to cut workers due to significant losses. The CEO Bradbury H. Anderson, said in a statement, "We believe that there has been a dramatic and potentially long-lasting change in consumer behavior as people adjust to the new realities of the marketplace."  One new reality, as we've blogged about in the past, is the  "repair vs. replace" attitude for consumers and industrial customers alike, putting a critical emphasis on getting service parts management in order. Companies that can perform well on after-sales service will have a clear advantage in this market, according to Walter Weart, Outsourced Logistics.]

In fact, Best Buy’s technical support business, aka Geek Squad, has been such a huge profit center for the company that other retailers are jumping on board. Target recently hired Zip Express, a company started by a former Best Buy employee, to compete with Best Buy on service.[1] Once again, this demonstrates that it’s not just about the price.

Finally, speaking of electronic gadgets and service, “The Business Impact of Customer Experience” report found that a cable television provider and a cell phone provider were most prone to customers taking their business to a competitor based on customer experience. Therefore, service delivery is extremely important in those asset-and-field-service intensive environments.

Like always, we welcome your feedback. Have any good/bad service experiences to report? We’d love to read about them!

[1] Zinn Fromm, Laura. “In Hard Times, Is Best Buy’s Best Good Enough?” The New York Times, Dec. 7, 2008.

It’s good to hear that we’re not the only company extolling the virtues [and profit margins] of service.

I just returned from ASU’s Center for Services Leadership Symposium on “Competing Through Service” in Phoenix, where an impressive array of industry leaders and academics discussed the growing significance of service as a competitive differentiator. Featured speakers included executives from Cisco, IBM, Sony, Cox Communications, Best Buy and even the online ‘upstart,’ Zappos.

While much of the discussion and presentations centered on service at the point of sale, I did take home some key points on post sale service.

According to Gary Bridge, Ph.D., SVP and Global Lead, Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco Systems, automobile manufacturers make about 1 percent profit on the initial auto sale and 22 percent profit on the aftermarket services.

1. Sean Skelley, SVP, Services, Best Buy Inc., reported that Best Buy’s Geek Squad performs service on only 40 percent of the computers it sells and the remaining 60 percent comes from competitors purchased elsewhere.
2. A study on service from the hotel industry found that service recovery had a significant impact on customer loyalty – and future sales. Customers who experienced a service issue and received quick and helpful resolution reported that they were more likely to recommend the hotel to a friend or colleague than customers who experienced no service issues.
3. All the speakers agreed that businesses in the future cannot win on product price due to commoditization. Instead, businesses must compete with value – and service is an enormous factor in that.
4. James Alexander of Alexander Consulting shared that the majority of technology services organizations, to off-set shrinking profit margins on products, expect their field service techs to aggressively help sell services and solutions. Think about it– a field technician can actually visit a client’s home or business and assess not only the current problem, but can sell a system upgrade or even additional services – something that the front-end salesperson wouldn’t see.

More interesting facts, figures and anecdotes to come!

Sounds like an episode of HBO’s “True Blood” - the one that features vampires - but it’s not.

In fact, it’s not even related to television or film. It happened at a local deli.

Some Servigistics colleagues and I walked over to a popular deli during our lunch hour to feast on some fresh subs. The line ran long and the number of employees low. The woman in front of me ordered a tuna sub on wheat, as did I, but the customer in front of her had ordered roast beef.

While the employee took the order from my colleague who ordered after me, the woman said aloud to any employee that would listen, “Uhm, excuse me. There’s blood on my sandwich!”

No joke.

Only one employee paid attention to her. With a look of annoyance, he moved over to face her behind the counter where the sub makers placed blocks of cheese and deli meat on the stainless steel slicer in order to prepare the subs.

She pointed to her tuna sub on wheat that was placed next to the meat slicer.

“Some blood from that beef fell on my sandwich,” she said.

“What?” the employee said.

“Blood,” she said. “On my tuna sandwich there,” and she pointed to her tuna sub.

He lifted the bun off the top of it. “I don’t see anything,” he said.

She insisted that she saw blood fall somewhere on her sandwich.

The employee let out an exasperated sigh and lifted the piece of cheese up from the tuna fish.

“I don’t see anything,” he insisted.

The woman tried one more time to explain that blood had spurted on her sandwich. It was obvious that she was NOT going to eat that sub. Instead of offering to make another one, the employee just looked at her, insisting that HE didn’t see any blood. I didn’t either, but she sure did. Real or not, the woman threw up her hands and walked out of the store.

No doubt she’d never return. And I’m sure once her friends and acquaintances heard of blood spattered sandwiches and poor customer service, no doubt they’d never return either.

When my colleagues and I finally sat down with our sandwiches, one of them said he’d never return to that deli after witnessing the spectacle. Blood or not, the employees’ reaction was inexcusable, he said.

How much business did this deli just lose? How spoiled had their brand become?

Certainly the loss will amount to more than the $4.29 tuna mini-sub. Blood or no blood, the employee should’ve offered to make her a fresh sandwich. A satisfied customer, positive word-of-mouth and relieved patrons would have been worth the cost.

Before I became a professional spinstress, I harbored aspirations of becoming a documentary photographer, in the same vein as a Mary Ellen Mark. Part of my preparation included a summer at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine, where I documented contemporary Registered Women Maine Guides.

What I discovered - apart from learning how to fly fish, tie flies, light a cigarette on a boat in a rainstorm, and make bananas foster on an open fire - was that becoming a guide is no easy feat. While I won’t drill down into all the details at this time, what I will discuss is the role of service as it pertains to guiding.

It’s no longer the end result that differentiates one guide from the next – just like in today’s commoditized and globalized market, it’s not the end product that will attract new business or foster customer loyalty – but the service provided along the journey. Think about it: Most professional guides will help you land the big kahuna – whether it’s a fish or a deer or a caribou – but do you want to squat on a log eating baked beans from a can or do you want a nice meal after a long day of trekking in the woods or fishing in the river?

I documented two women guides in their early thirties who were just starting their own guiding business. In order to cut their teeth and prove to the old school guides that they had what it took, they joined an old-timer on a weekend hunting trip.

At the end of the weekend, the two women agreed that old-timer knew how to hunt, but he sure didn’t know much about customer service. His gear was ratty and moldy. The tents had holes in the floor as well as the roof. For lunch, he tossed them PB&J sandwiches wrapped in tin foil and squished from being stuffed in the bottom of his pack. For dinner, the old-timer stuck the cans of baked beans in the campfire coals, pulled out dirty utensils and then passed each of the women her own warmed can. He used his fingers to dig out the beans that were burned to the bottom of the can.

What these two women offered was excellent service plus the big kahuna. By offering gourmet meals, clean and comfortable tents, state-of-the-art gear and fly-fishing expertise, these two women were creating a service model that would put the old-school guides out of business. And they’d get paid a lot more to do so.

Isn’t that true for most businesses in the 21^st century? Whether it be a telephone system or a computer server, products and price being about the same, I’m selecting the business that offers me the best service package and I’ll even pay more for it.

And if you ever want to fly-fish in Maine, check out Kennebec Tidewater Charters. You’ll improve your fly-casting, catch a fish and enjoy great service along the way.