Part 1 (Attitude)
Written By: Sean Fitzgerald Pres. IT-NetLogistics
Having spent thirty years in the Information Technology (IT) service business and having built three national service companies I have developed a clear understanding of what clients are searching for in the IT service sector (whether they know it or not.) Having provided IT services for hundreds of companies with national footprints and being able to continue to serve these clients, some for more than a decade, is certainly indicative of a company that clearly understands the parameters of reliable and cost effective service. Although my unique experiences, and the processes I developed, were designed around enterprise clients with nationwide IT service needs I suspect they would apply to the service industry in general.
I am convinced that there a multitude of categories that make up good service but for me the most necessary attributes would be Attitude, Expertise, Execution, and Delivery. Most other necessary requirements of service expertise can be placed under one of these four headings. I will address my thoughts in relation to each of these categories over the next month. This writing addresses Attitude.
As our readers are all professionals we will skip over the obvious definitions of these four sub titles and get to the crux of what they really mean in a more advanced stage.
Attitude: Attitude is what you do above and beyond what a client is requiring or expecting you to do. Early in my career I became proficient at the nuts and bolts requirements of providing quality service i.e. showing up on time, dispatching quality technical resources, service reporting procedures and so on. These basic skills are the skills that everyone in the service sector either quickly acquires or is doomed to failure. Having said that, what then differentiates one service company from another if they all have the ability to perform similar field services? What allows one company to flourish while others struggle to stay in business? Certainly there are many answers to these questions however I suggest that in essence it’s about Attitude! In business Attitude is more than an employees demeanor it the entire companies demeanor from the top down. Attitude is recognizing the mission, knowing how to drive it, and understanding the values that will continually allow you to outperform the competition. Of the aforementioned four categories this article will address Attitude is perhaps the most critical component, and if correctly understood, it will not only separate you from your competitors it will ensure the continued support of your most valued clients.
I have always felt that I held advantages over my competitors regardless of their size and financial prowess. Most of my career was spent competing against the largest of the nations service organizations. I marketed our services to fortune 1000 clients so it would stand to reason that my company would compete against some of the worlds largest service providers. Once again in these situations it was Attitude that allowed me to successfully market our services to these clients and again it was attitude that allowed me to continue to serve these clients year after year. An example of the attitude I am speaking of is demonstrated in the following paragraph.
I came to realized through the day to day performance of our IT services that a multitude of tasks needed to be preformed by the client prior to our company actually receiving the service request or project order. Examples of these tasks to name a few were, documenting contact information, locating new addresses, coordinating move dates, ordering telco service, coordination with branch managers, landlords, construction personnel, as well as suppliers and others. Recognizing this situation my attitude was that our company needed to begin collecting and providing this information for our clients. This made perfect sense, after all, we were the ones that would need this information to proceed with and complete the project. Over time, with each client, we suggested that we begin to assist them in the performance of these functions. As I suspected, within months we took complete ownership of this entire process allowing our client’s in house personnel to deal with more pressing and critical issues. These new services were provided to our client at no additional cost and our company recognized an increase in efficiencies and quality control. This is not to suggest that our client didn’t do an excellent job at this task it is simply that now if a mistake was made it was made by us, and corrected by us, without us having to seek information from our client to correct the problem.
—- I would suggest that it is attitude that allows one to both recognize and act upon potentials and that in turn leads to new opportunities ——
Most service companies understand the “nuts and bolts” that I referred to earlier however it is the attitude of the company, as we previously discussed, that allows one to grow and prosper in the most competitive environments. A company develops it own and unique attitude which begins with the visions and actions of the senior management and then flows through the entire enterprise. We have all seen examples of this attitude in companies that we have visited and I contend it only takes a few minutes to ascertain the attitude of the company. If you walk up to a company’s warehouse window and the only salutation you get is something to the effect “Yea what do you want, or next “you immediately sense the attitude of this person and in most cases it is the attitude of the entire organization. Conversely, if in the same situation you are greeted with “good morning how can I help you?” you realize that this is a well run company and most likely the employees are happy to work for the company and they show it.
The last point I will make about attitude is that attitude can be easily supervised simply by sharing the vision and successes of the company’s efforts with all employees. Regardless of an employees level they need to know that their job performance is critical to the overall company effort. By sharing company information employees begin to understand the importance of their role and they become a more empowered employee.
It’s written in stone that the sales department always gets credit for bringing in the project and upper management seems to always receive similar accolades. What about the other employees who may be behind the scenes but clearly took part in the effort and saw it through to completion? In my experience these employees contributions are often overlooked and that’s why you here things like “Yea what do you want? Or next” instead of a smile and a warm greeting. Pay attention to all of the company’s employees and their contributions to the success of the effort and if you do this you will not need to be concerned about the attitude or image of the company.
In the IT service business it is even more critical that every contact a client has with the service provider is a pleasant, informative and professional experience.
Warm regards!