I was talking to Don Hales from the Customer Service Training Association the other day about how companies use customer service to help them out and he told me a story about Tower 42, a City-based office tower block in London, and how they are using customer service as a means to stand out from the crowd.
He told me that Tower 42 are applying five-star, hotel-like service to serviced offices and that they are swimming against the tide on office rents in London by charging high office rents but combining that with exceptional customer service and facilities.
Their vision is:
We provide outstanding service and first class facilities to exceed our customers' expectations. Our team is developed and encouraged to achieve the highest standards of excellence
Looking their website, they must be doing something right as being the highest office block in the City of London they only have 4 units free in the whole building.
They seem to have deduced that competing on price alone is a race to the bottom of the market and that swimming against the tide on office rents in London and offering something different is a clear way to help them stand out from the rest of the market.
I love stories like this as it provides an example of a business that is willing to do something different in order to help them compete and stand out.
I'd love to hear your stories about companies that you have seen that are swimming against the tide whether it is on price or service or the way that they deliver to their customers so we can all learn from each other.
What's your favourite story of a company or organisation that you think is swimming against the tide and winning?