A slight variation on the slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid.” And it came to my mind this morning as we interviewed customers at a well-known financial company in order to gain insight regarding the way they feel about one of our client’s products and service.
Every two words, both customers would go back to the same comment, “It’s all about relationships, ” and the “relationship” they were talking about was not between companies; it was between people. They’d tell us story after story of the many instances of personal dedication and attention to detail by different employees, ranging from engineers to maintenance technicians.
Quality was pretty much taken for granted, and the competitors were criticized not because their product was not as good as our client’s but because their service was not as impressive. A useful reminder that people are your best, most robust differentiator.