Service discriminators - the home broadband analogy

Copyright Virginmedia

Responding to a question of what discriminated one service over another, the best answer given recently was the home broadband analogy. Basically one reputable broadband service should be pretty much like the next. So what made me choose one provider over another?

Although day-to-day experience of broadband is the pretty homogenous whoever the provider, when we moved house there was a single major discriminating factor. My chosen provider (you can guess who) installed broadband the day after we moved in.  Not bad! Another, major household name, provider couldn't connect us until 2 weeks later.  Choice was a bit of a no-brainer!

Of course there are generally other elements in the decision making mix when you buy a service: what's the basic product like; how easy do they make it for me to deal with them (endless 'press 1 for ...' or straight through to a knowledgeable advisor); what's their image as a supplier; do I expect they will able offer future innovation and extra services; are they an innovation leader or a follower. Oh yes - there's also price! (Also, do I expect lower price/more for my money in future as technology develops or the market matures.)

For my broadband service there was some internal mental calculus around the above factors that led to my particular choice.  (A simple decision based on the wait for installation.)  In a business-to-business context, there's probably no single discriminator between providers. Likely it's the sum of performance in each of the important service elements put together coherently, and weighted in a formal assessment, that counts.

If you want to win, be world class/industry leading in all the elements.  Then you're in the game!

Maximising your Services Value

There are numerous ways Services can add value!

A previous post discussed how the value of a service is not just the 'technical solution'. So what's a checklist of other things that can add value to the customer?

The graphic shows 5 areas where value can be added (risk transfer, efficiency, etc). Value-adding features don't always sit just in one area. For instance a feature might be more efficient because it has superior 'output'. (One could also use the word 'performance' instead, remembering that sometimes performance just needs to be as good as asked for and not better.) So as the value-adding areas are sometimes over-lapping and re-inforcing - and in the spirit of London 2012 this year - the 5 areas are shown as interlocking Olympic rings.

The 'running track' shows a list of potential value-adding features. Some are common phrases, such as Sweat Assets. Others are less well known, such as 3PR (3rd Party Revenue, selling excess capacity) or Serial Sell (sell capacity/assets/service to someone else when 1st customer no longer needs it). It might be as simple as selling a service to a customer so that assets employed sit off their balance sheet and on yours or other parties!

There's probably no end of features and combinations that could be used, and they can be every bit as important as the prima-facie solution!