By Stephen Rhodes

I often ask clients about their secret sauce – what makes them different from their competitor.
Many service-based companies say good customer service, or even excellent customer service is their competitive advantage. It’s their secret sauce.

I tend to give it more credence when they express excellent customer service from the clients point of view. Afterall, doesn’t every business say they have good customer service.

So what is good customer service? Unless you talk on a regular basis to your customers, you probably don’t know. It’s like branding. A brand is not what you think it is, it’s what your customer says it is.

So, if you want to be excellent at customer service, ask your customers what that means to them. And then market your “excellent customer service” as an expression of what it means to your customers.

Reposted from The Marketing Pad

Stephen Rhodes is President of The Marketing PAD, a full-service strategic communications and marketing company. Read Blogpad or visit