Monthly Archive:: January 2016

One Customer’s Experience is Not a Slam Dunk for Service Providers

As we work with service providers developing new offers, we see a very common issue. A provider develops an innovative offering for one of its customers. Often that customer will have led the provider into it and then they evolve it over time. An executive shows up from the provider company and says, “Wow,

What Drives Funding for Service Providers’ New Initiatives?

So often, clients tell their providers, “If you help us save money, we will spend that money on your services in other areas.” But what often happens when the service provider saves the money is that no funding for new initiatives is forthcoming. Instead, they are asked to do more initiatives to achieve more

Don’t Let Your Salespeople Tell You What Your Customer Wants

In the services industry, the watchword is to listen to the customer. Providers tend to believe what their salespeople say about what the customer wants. However, salespeople really don’t understand the voice of the customer. As evidence, think of what the salespeople relate back to management about an RFP. Things like “We lost on

The Gig Economy Comes to Service Providers

There has been tremendous discussion around the “gig economy.” You need look no further than Uber or Airbnb to see the successful use of this labor model and understand why its popularity is growing among entrepreneurs, employees, and employers alike. Here’s the real news: major service providers are starting to experiment with the model.

Top 10 Enterprise Services Decisions that Probably Won’t Happen in 2016

10. Technicolor splendor. Because of the growth in video conferencing, we’re going to eliminate our travel budgets and do everything through video conferencing. 9. Lightning strikes twice. Apples and Androids have gone too far and the Bring Your Own Device model is unsupportable. So we’ll go back to company-issued PCs and phones so we can