Wait … Maybe We DON’T Need Service Contracts

In the changing landscape of service agreements, should B2Bs be rethinking service contracts and delivery?

Daniel Newman

Performance-Based Agreements Will Rule Future

When I started my business as a content and digital marketing service provider, I decided not to require long-term contracts. Everything is based on 30-day agreements. Considering it takes months sometimes to see ideal results I recognized the need for short-term agreements.

My number one priority has to be client satisfaction. This needs to be the number one priority for any business. Rather than focusing on how you can lock a customer in and hold them captive, reinvest that energy into ways to make them happy each and every day.

This is the future of service delivery—customer experience.

With so many organizations catching onto the idea of earning the opportunity to serve and then providing the service, the old school service “contract” may have a short shelf life ahead.

The good news is satisfied clients almost always stay. So if your business truly is about continuously creating great customer experiences, you really don’t have much to worry about.

And sure, I get the concerns with moving away from service contracts; with a shift like this a certain level of discomfort will be created.

Remember, if you deliver in the end and the customer has a need for the service you provide, you should be in great shape. Most of the time when they leave it isn’t because they don’t need your service; it is because your service let the customer down.

Nonetheless, whether the idea of the “no-term” contract sounds brilliant or asinine, it is the way of the future in a “show-me” economy.

 

 

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About the Author

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I am a principal analyst of Futurum Research and CEO of Broadsuite Media Group. I spend my time researching, analyzing and providing the world’s best and brightest companies with insights as to how digital transformation, disruption, innovation and the experience economy are changing how business is done. Bringing together the technology layer with the human layer, I seek to solve the biggest challenges that companies have today; how to grow, scale, change and adapt to a world where technology and media shift at breakneck speed. So what does this mean? It means that I spend my life learning about what drives people to adopt new technology so I can share those secrets with companies that are ready to take their business to the next level. From keynoting on the world’s largest stages to weekly insights on Forbes, MarketWatch and our owned media properties, my goal is to provide our clients with what they need to know to out innovate and turn disruption from threat, into a business model for success.

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