Service First, Success Second

March 17, 2010 in Marketing and Branding | 4 comments

HENDERSON, NV - JULY 22: A sign is seen on th...
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I keep preaching it, but I believe our world is changing.  And for those who run and own businesses, they are finding that the pursuit of Success must take a backseat to Service to their clients and customers.

Examples:

GOOD: I’m a fan of Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, who pushes customer experience BEFORE he pushes his product.  Interesting.  I’ve even heard him say that when hiring they don’t care if their employees know much about shoes (one of the things they sell) – they want to develop employees who deliver great service.  Customer Service isn’t a department at Zappos, it permeates the whole culture of the company.

BAD: Wal-Mart on the other hand is a company becoming known for poor customer service (though they do have a great logistical supply chain).  It’s kind of like Wal-Mart has chosen their culture too – and it includes high employee turnover, poor employee training, and employees who can’t and won’t help you.  They’ve chosen low prices as their platform to compete on.  In a sense, low cost is their “Success” while “Service” has taken a back seat.

Who will win in a new economy?

I believe our world is changing (dun said it), and people are more and more demanding that they receive outstanding customer service.  Price can be second now.  And I’m finding that price (or Success as I’m relating to it) can be higher than the last guy, as long as Service is there.  Competing with products is no longer the main platform to gauge your success.  Especially in a world of downturns, product competition simply keeps you in the game, NOT help you win it.  Service will be where you win.

Service first, Success second.

What do you think?  Leave it in the comments above.


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  1. chris’s avatar

    chris on March 17, 2010 at 11:41 am

    Preach on brutha!!!

  2. Mike Campbell’s avatar

    Mike Campbell on March 18, 2010 at 9:07 am

    Do you think that Zappos will survive now that they have been purchased by Amazon? Amazon is more like Wal-Mart. They have a huge selection and low prices, but terrible customer service.

    Companies that focus on two or three value propositions are more successful than those that try to be all things to all people. When companies try to focus on too many value propositions, they end up becoming mediocre in all.

    Who will win in the new economy? The company that knows it’s target market and focuses on the 2-3 things that are important to their customers. In other words, both the company that focus on customer service with high price and the company that focuses on low price with poor customer service will win. The company that tries to provide low prices with high customer service will lose.

  3. thriveal’s avatar

    thriveal on March 19, 2010 at 3:33 pm

    Mike, I’m a big “private company” fan. Private companies run by innovative people will ALWAYS be able to outdo the big boxes when it comes to customer service. But, as noted in an Intuit-sponsored Future Report some time back, there will probably be a place for both the large company and the small innovative company (the Institute for the Future called it the “barbell economy”). In fact, they will begin to rely on each other more and more. The small company can turn on a dime with innovation and offer crazy customer focus, while the larger company can offer low prices, supply chain logistical genius, scalability, etc. (things a small company just can’t do)

    I believe those smaller companies (the ones I still like) will become powerful when they figure out how to collaborate with the big guys. I ALWAYS think the smaller company has the advantage in offering customer support, but the small guys who figure out COLLABORATION will be able to blow away their competition. Collaboration, after heavily niche-focusing a company, is the way of the future.

    As for the future of Zappos, it will HAVE to fit into the low-price model that Amazon has established (I think). So, there goes another one (but I wonder what I would do if Deloitte offered to buy me out for $928 million?).

  4. thriveal’s avatar

    thriveal on March 19, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    Chris, you’re the man. How are the taxes coming?