Value is in the Eyes of the Beholder: Key Customer Value Factors

Remote DBA Experts is a service business.  We provide remote database administration services to customers nationwide.  Our goal and on-going challenge is to deliver service like no one else.   Our strategy to accomplish this goal is to hire great DBAs and support staff, and to enable them with a good environment and advanced service delivery capabilities.  I believe that our ultimate goal is to ensure the databases under our stewardship are as available as needed, and performing in top shape.  That is our main focus and why customers retain our services.  As a service provider, our customers not only value our results in availability and performance, but they also value us for how we go about delivering those results.  That is the subject of my next blog post series.

I have identified several factors I consider key to high service value perception:

• Timeliness
• Efficiency
• Effectiveness
• Responsiveness
• Quality
• Integrity

These are the factors customers use to value our worth to them.  These are generic and applicable broadly and are listed in no particular order.  Each customer has their own top factors.   Factor importance is relevant to specific conditions and unique circumstances.  Each customer’s mind-set and value system also influence their rank.  Furthermore, importance is relative and can vary from situation to situation.  At times, they may value efficiency more than effectiveness or vice versa. In the following posts, I plan to delve deeper into each of these factors.

The secret to the sauce is realizing that value is in the eyes of the beholder.  It is how we are perceived by the customer, regardless of how well we think we are doing.  It is critical to be fully cognizant of this fact.  That means that service providers must continually assess what is important to their customers and make sure their approach is aligned with their expectations in this regard.   Clear definitions and benchmarks are critical to alignment.  What is timely to one person may not be so to another.   Even when Service Level Agreements (SLAs) govern relationships, the end customer was probably far detached from the SLA setting process.  Value factors need recalibration on an ongoing basis regardless.   More in the next posts.

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO