If it isn't a service strategy - it should be!

How can you dramatically and cost-effectively position your organization to create a dominant brand in the market? It's a question that can be critical, not only to the success, but to the survival, of your business, especially given the current economic slowdown

Most companies attempt to dominate the market by spending millions of dollars on advertising. (The problem is that half of that money is wasted—but no one really knows which half). Some companies spend millions of dollars on capital renovations to create beautiful buildings to draw more customers. Some add more inventory; some cut prices.

Taking any one of those steps will surely attract more customers, at least for a time.  But in the long run, none of them will keep customers coming back to you for years to come. My research shows that organizations that create an incredible customer service experience own the market. If that's you're goal, you must develop and institute a serve strategy.

Well, you are probably thinking, that sounds nice, but how do I do that? First, you have to walk the talk—and keep walking it. Many companies built their business on a service strategy, but after 10 or 15 years, they let it slip—and their sales followed suit. Wal-Mart is a good example. It built a powerful brand with customer service and then lost its focus—and its brand dominance. Today the only focus Wal-Mart has is on price; service is non-existent.  And the financial impact has been disastrous—the company has lost more than $95 billion in market value during the past several years.

Amazon, on the other hand, focuses on customer service and, as a result, it dominates the market. In 1995, the company had sales of $511,000. In 2007, Amazon's sales were $14.8 billion, a 38.5 percent increase over the previous year. The company's vision is to be the most customer-centric company in the world and it is well on the way, thanks to a combination of speed, technology, and price—all built around service.

Like Amazon, Southwest Airlines has built a brand around service and has realized great success in doing so. The airline has made money for 35 consecutive years—including $645 million in 2007. It believes it people are its most valuable asset and it realizes that it is not in the business of flying airplanes, it's really in the business of serving customers.

The reason that so many other companies aren't realizing the success that Amazon and Southwest Airlines are is that their top management doesn't understand the power of a service strategy.  I blame that, in part, on the recent trend of putting financial wizards in charge of running companies. Those financial geniuses focus strictly on numbers; they don't understand the impact of customer service. They also don't understand that focusing on service is the least expensive way to build a powerful brand and dominate the market.

Implementing a service strategy requires a long-term commitment that begins with the hiring process. You must hire people who genuinely enjoy working with people and then teach them how to meet your service standards. You must train every employee in your organization on the art of customer service. I recommend that you take 10 percent of your advertising budget and use it to provide a new customer service training program every four months. Those programs should focus on service fundamentals, teaching employees the importance of recognizing customers, calling them by name, smiling, making them feel special.

At the core of a service strategy is the belief that no transaction is complete unless the service customers receive is sufficient enough to motivate them to return and do business with you again and again. That means that you must do whatever it takes to ensure that your customers are satisfied with every contact they have with your company and your employees. That, in turn, means that you must empower your employees to do whatever it takes to satisfy the customer. You must make it easy for people to do business with you. That means continually looking for policies and procedures that get in the way of customer service—and then eliminating them.

If you focus solely on price and product, you will not succeed. But if you develop a service strategy and focus on providing the best possible service to your customers, you will dominate the market.

John Tschohl is an international service strategist. Described by Time and Entrepreneur magazines as a "customer service guru," he has written several books on customer service, including Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service, Loyal For Life, e-Service, The Customer is Boss, and Ca$hing In: Make More Money, Get a Promotion, Love Your Job.

www.customer-service.com