On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 05:07:33PM -0400, Elliot Noss wrote: > > I would bet that the true differentiation of your business is trust, > reliability and reputation.
Trust, reliability and reputation *can't* be differentiating factors if a large number of trustworthy and reliable providers exist. The differentiating factors must be a combination of services, with a manageable interface (whether it's by https or by telephone). If I make my services generic, I reduce their relative value. If my management interface consists of an excellent bedside manner, that's fine. But the reason we ATTRACT customers has nothing to do with customer service, it has to do with marketing. > The most important point that I take away from this thread is that I haven't > done a good enough job of describing what I mean by "innovating at the > edge". I have written a number of times in the past about the smart service > provider focusing on customer service and customer acquisition as core > competencies. Some of you have played that back as "we would just be direct > marketers and answering phones in support" and not doing anything technical. I don't think it's quite that. While I have great respect for Tucows, I honestly feel that this whole "customer service definition" thing is a bit of a shifting target. Like the DMA and others trying to impose new definitions for "spam" and "confirmed opt-in", I get the feeling that you've come up with a definition of "customer service" that conveniently gets updated as objections arise. My impression may not be warranted, but I can certainly confirm that what I had thought of as customer service did not include everything you describe. If I were a marketing whiz instead of an experienced geek, I would focus on market research, benefit analyses, whatever. But I'm not. I write software and manage systems that allow Internet services to be provided in a way that so far has managed to attract and retain enough customers to keep a roof over my head and food in my belly. *My* focus is writing software and managing systems. So your definition of customer service, while an interesting read, doesn't offer me practical methods to change my way of doing business in a way that will be more compatible with Tucows' new product offerings. > Customer service. Do you know why your customers are calling you? What the > top ten reasons are every month? Do you create new faq items monthly to > address these issues? Do you push new self-help tools to your customers > quarterly to address these issues? If I could answer these questions, then my differentiating factors would be customer-service-related rather than technical. But I can't, and the fact that I still have customers despite that would seem to indicate that other approaches can work also. > Customer Acquisition. Do you track where your new customers come from? Do > you sell using features or benefits (this is a whole discussion in itself as > I think our WHOLE industry is way off the mark here)? This is market research in a market whose products are all technical. That doesn't make it a technical issue. If my interest were marketing rather than software and systems, I could answer these questions. After all that, the only real objections I can come up with are that this service competes directly with services that I (and a number of us) already provide, and I'm frustrated that my use of the Tucows Registrar has contributed to the development of products whose widespread use will increase competition in an area that brings me revenue. And it's a spurious objection, because I have no right to object to Tucows' efforts to generate profit for its shareholders, when I'm not even a shareholder. -- Paul Chvostek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Operations / Abuse / Whatever it.canada, hosting and development http://www.it.ca/
