Back in the 70s Burger King pioneered the optimal customer experience with their famous “Have It Your Way” approach. It has taken many industries decades to catch up, but increased customer demand for a customized experience is changing that, especially in the technology industry.

Research repeatedly points to the fact that a high percentage of customers leave a company because of the experience. Many, many factors can be attributed to a poor experience such as an unprofessional salesperson, insufficiency meeting the customer’s needs and expectations, and even something as damaging as your competition listening to your customers when you aren’t.

An effective customer experience model isn’t as narrow as ‘the customer is always right.’ It also does not mean to focus only on the critical touchpoints or interactions from the customer’s start-to-end journey. The customer experience must be an organization-wide strategic goal that also deeply involves the customer. A recent article in Harvard Business Review shows how important it is to look at the journey from every aspect including moments like routine customer inquiry calls. By looking at the context of these interactions, business leaders can continuously improve the customer journey.

To put this model into context, I’ve shared a few ways we approach the customer experience at Key Services in the B2B arena.

Let the Customer Design Their Own Experience with Flexible and Customizable Services

At Key Services, our clients design their own customized services. When it comes to technology infrastructure there is no one-size fits all solution. To remain competitive in the marketplace, vendors need to be flexible. Customized service is a big part of the Key Services brand, and it is often a clear differentiator between us and our competitors. Our mission is to serve as a business partner and not just a service provider, so our team works very hard to create and nurture strong relationships with our clients using customized solutions.

Help Customers Decrease Operating Costs with Scalable Solutions

If you can positively affect a customer’s bottom line, you become a business partner. One of the most significant ways we do this is with our impact on employee training and turnover. Hiring and training employees is very expensive and directly impacts a company’s profitability. For positions like engineers and repair technicians, very costly specialized training and certification is required, which increases the expense. Add to this the cost of turnover and the overall expenses worsens. We approach this very real problem by offering scalable technology repair solutions and focusing on our own employee retention.

When it comes to being scalable, we can add to our workforce through our technician network which gives us access to over 10,000 highly experienced technicians nationwide. Our clients have access to our ISO 9001: 2008 certified technicians and engineers and a state-of-the-art repair center. Our technical staff averages sixteen years of industry experience and has been compiling a repairs knowledge base for the past decade. What this means for the client is improved service profitability, reduced service labor costs, and it eliminates the need for technician training. What’s more, as new products are developed, our clients have a team with the skills needed to service, maintain and repair the equipment. We also specialize in repairing non-branded and obsolete technology, which helps extend the life cycle of the technology.

Expand Your Services Before the Market Changes

The technology industry changes every single day. If we aren’t changing with it, we won’t remain competitive and we won’t serve as a valuable resource to our customers. If you want to strengthen your competitive edge, get in front of your industry’s change. When our customers are planning new features and services for their customers, we become a part of this change. Our relationship with the customer grows stronger as does our position in the industry.

Decrease Administrative Burdens for Customers

For a company to be successful, the leadership must keep a tight rein on administrative costs. Our approach to this challenge is to serve as a single-point-of-contact for the customer and takeover the burden of vendor management. It’s rare in the technology industry to have all equipment and parts come from one vendor. We help reduce administrative costs by streamlining the process and absorbing the warehouse and storage costs for the customer.

In 2012, we launched a large scale reorganization to expanded the services and solutions offered to customers. Our goal is to allow our customers to be hands off with their IT functions and focus on their core business. The areas above are just a few of the strategic changes we have designed based on our research and communications with customers. We know it’s a project we will never completely finish, but the rewards are high with employee and customer satisfaction, increased revenue and lower costs.

Learn more about partnering with Key Services and our capabilities at www.key-services.com or contact us at 336-768-4400.

This article was first published on LinkedIn by Michelle Deal.