THE COMPETITIVE EDGE!

Third Ring Thinking and Best Practices – the Competitive Edge!

What is ‘Third Ring thinking’?

The First ring is your product or service.?The Second ring covers all the systems and people that have been put in place to support and deliver on the product or service promise.?The Third ring is where the customer or client receives and perceives the product or service.?Due to today’s disrupted environment, so much of our customer contact is dependent on technology – emails, phone calls, digital connectivity.

The business too often views its service from the inside out.?Fortunes are spent on smart branded ads and video clips - reaching right into our mobiles.?The customer, on the other hand, views the business from the outside in - from the Third Ring! Their reality so often falls short of the business’s service promise.?All the fortunes spent on establishing a brand with beautiful logos and promotional material is lost - ?if the customer’s ultimate contact experience is unsatisfactory!?

We have all been in that Third Ring at some time!?This so often happens when we desperately need a human voice to deal with our urgent situation only to have to press 1, 2, or 3 to find support.?And if we do get through, to be told: “You’ve come through to the wrong department. You have to speak to?. . .”.??

What is the solution??Every person in the business – yes, every person – should step into the third ring and view the business offerings from the outside in.?Time and effort will be needed to align the service excellence at every point of contact – known as Moments of Truth.?This is not rocket science!?It’s a commitment that starts with every service provider (from security to accounting staff) sharing the vision, feeling valued, and being recognised for being a golden link in the service excellence chain.?It’s worth the investment in time, and equally needed for internal customer service. ?As has been said: “You can tell when there’s love in the home – or not!”

And what is meant by Best Practices?

It’s the way we do things around here.?It’s the mindset and caring we put into every aspect of the business as we seek better ways of delivering - whether information, services, or products. Best Practices supports Third Ring Thinking.

An example: Gone are the days when the brand was protected by a responsible manager who dictated correspondence to a highly qualified secretary who conformed to high standards of typography. Today, almost every employee has an e-mail address, and therefore a licence to send the organisation’s image out into cyberspace. A glance through my in-box shows how dismally these communications fall short of the sophisticated brand they should be supporting!?Does the business have a correspondence Best Practices standard??Seems low-priority . . . But is it?

Some time ago I worked for a company that was low on funds for a PR campaign. We invited a few quotes from the marketplace. The most expensive one had every department’s contribution using the same font, page set-up, numbering, etc. It was impressive! The more desirably-priced quote was a dog’s breakfast - fonts and page numbers differed, landscape pages were inserted into a portrait document. Despite the shortage of funds, we opted for the expensive proposal. We felt that if the other company couldn’t get its internal act together, how could they possibly collaborate to meet our campaign needs!

It is therefore imperative that time and energy be invested in getting the brand standard across to all employees. While this is important for correspondence, it is equally important for all aspects of the way we do business and connect with customers. Step into the Third Ring!

Third Ring Thinking and Best Practices is the competitive edge!