That's Different...

There is a theory in business that you have to have an angle of entry into the marketplace.  In other words how does one business differential itself from its competitor?  Don’t they all have, “a friendly and knowledgeable staff”?   That reminds me of a story. I was once on a retreat (really a 3rd floor conference room) locked away with a dozen of so coworkers with the mandate of developing a mission statement. There was no plan at the time, nor did one ever develop, to implement it in any way, but hey, free lunch was provided. The workshop happened a year or so after Lexus came out with their ‘relentless pursuit of perfection’ slogan and for some reason one of the supervisors on the team was insistent in working that into our statement. Why, I asked, would we put a car slogan into our customer service mission statement? Didn’t we want one with our own stamp on it, something original? The answer came down as no and we went with it. When we regrouped with the larger team, most of them had a variation of that slogan.

It became our mission statement and we framed it and put it on the wall of the lobby. Half the customers who came in wondered why we had the Lexus slogan on the wall at the cable company. The department manager took it down a few weeks later.

How you enter the marketplace defines you and sets you apart for your competition. 

Have clear idea of who you are and why you deserve customers and communicate that to them.