Everyone Wants to Feel Liked

Did you know that telecom and cloud service providers actually hate being mocked about their notoriously bad level of service? Of course… Everyone wants to be liked! Did you know they think they just can’t afford to be “good?”

It’s not that they haven’t tried. They’ve continually tried to be good… Many providers have made an effort to “change their ways,” and differentiate by adding more employees to the back office in order to deliver exceptional service to customers.

But in the short-term, they have to raise their prices to pay for the added people… No problem, “everyone understands that buyers are always willing to pay more for better service, right?” We all believe “you get what you pay for.”

…Except when it comes to business telecom and cloud service. But why?

Well, my opinion is that every single service provider already “claims” to have good service but IT Buyers have no track record to verify that this company is any different than the hundreds of others claiming their service is exceptional.

Nearly all IT buyers have believed the claims at least once – right before the install went south, their rep disappeared and the bill came back higher than promised. Burn me once…

As a result, only a few IT buyers actually believe the hype and purchase the “do-gooder” telecom or cloud service provider at the higher price. To their delight, the provider delivers great service to these few customers… in silence.

Word travels slow in this B2B industry of IT buyers. It’s not like IT buyers gather at the local coffee shop each day and enjoy talkin’ shop about service providers. As a result, the service provider with a conscience has to wait an excruciatingly long time to get the few first-mover customers to turn into droves of customers.

So, along the way, as they look at the dismal sales numbers, the executives of the “do-gooder” provider are forced to eventually retreat. With their demise looming, they do a 180, stripping down their back-office to the bare minimum and revert back to delivering spotty service and selling on price.

What should we do about this vicious cycle?

How can telecom and cloud providers survive long enough for word-of-mouth to travel, charging more for better service?

How can IT Buyers know which service providers “honestly” deliver good service?

Check out our home page and find out what other IT Buyers have to say about service providers!

About the Author
Mike Smith is the Founder and President of AeroCom and has been helping companies with telecom and cloud services since 1999. He has been the recipient of numerous business telecommunications industry awards and in 2011, he was honored as one of the top 40 business people in Orange County, CA., under 40 years old. Follow Mike on LinkedIn, Twitter or SpiceWorks.