Written by Steve Gruber

When was the last time you truly received excellent service?  I’m referring to the type of service that made you stand up and actually take notice of what the word excellence really means.

We live in a world where, I believe, mediocre service has become the norm.  Whether it’s the services you receive at a restaurant, box office, or from your managed service provider, it seems that service is on the decline, with maybe a few exceptions.

A lot of the time, what we see today as a Disaster Recovery Service provider is many customers telling us horror stories about the level of service they have been receiving from their current service providers.

The stories are endless about their experiences, especially around a lack of support and service when they conduct their DR tests.  Imagine if those same customers facing these service issues had to actually declare a disaster; what should they expect? What a Disaster Recovery team needs the most, in order to provide and exceed for a client, is to bolster its service delivery teams and have their feet on the ground, ready to take action.

My point is: what happened to the old “baker’s dozen’ philosophy to service where a customer orders 12 but gets 13 delivered, where the customer is king?  Or where you can say we experienced “white glove service.”

The service provider business leaders of today must continually instill the sense of value with their services delivery teams because keeping customers is just as important, and maybe even more important, than obtaining new customers.

The team I work with daily focuses on the fact that we must “out service our competition,” which we pride ourselves in being extremely good at.

So, my advice to all – regardless of what kind of business you operate, manage, or the job you perform – is to strive for excellence and be different to the point where people or the customers you serve take notice and bring back the tradition of the “baker’s dozen.”