What it takes to succeed in the service industry

Far too many of the so-called healthy debates are currently about the techniques, skill sets, and technology businesses should be developing. Truth is, most of the participants wouldn’t know a skinned cat from an ice cream cone if they had a cheat sheet. I know, because I used to be one of those. Once we’ve assumed integrity as the foundation of our business, we then get down to the one thing that matters: Skinned Cats. 

Most of us love talking about different ways to skin the cat. Our way, their way, some other way, or simply that there are many ways to skin a cat. But the #1 question asked by any business’s ultimate consumer? Did the cat get skinned? With few exceptions, they usually don’t care how, assuming the given of integrity. They just want results. They’re not impressed with our awards or our claims of world domination.

In my industry, whether it’s traditional home sales or investment, the use of social media is and has been an ongoing topic of sometimes heated debate. Yet, when we look at the, you know, actual results generated, one truth becomes readily apparent: There are precious few cat skins on the social media wall. Don’t get me wrong, as there are millions of dollars flowing to both social media providers and those claiming expertise in social media marketing. But the result they generally produce is the transfer of cash from their customers’ Levis to their own, and not much else.

Put more succinctly, as service providers we’ve successfully skinned the cat when our clients/customers get the results for which hired us to produce.

You’d think that would be too obvious to put in writing, right? Yet look around us. We all use service providers. Some we use relatively regularly, some from time to time, and some only a few occasions in a lifetime. In most cases we have a huge list of firms from which to select.

Take auto maintenance and repair. What’s your experience with that service? Yeah, me to. Furthermore, once we find one who consistently maintains/repairs our vehicles at a fair price, with integrity, we tend to stick with ’em like glue, don’t we? You bet we do.

Over the years I’ve had dozens of service business owners tell me that their best marketing is free. My experience lines up with theirs. It’s ongoing or former customers braggin’ about how the business has been skinnin’ their cats for years.

• I needed the transmission rebuilt and it’s been runnin’ perfectly ever since.
• She’s sold two homes for me, and sold me three, all of ’em flawlessly.
• Yep, due to their marketing, my business doubled in five years.

Nobody cares about how results are obtained until they find out IF results were produced. The public wants results, as THEY define them, produced quickly and with integrity. With rare exceptions they generally don’t care how it’s done.

People just want results, honestly produced. All service providers need to do is skin the right cats. Why is that so hard to understand? Why are there so few in each industry who concentrate on producing real life results? The public is pretty dang smart when it comes to finding those who get the job done.

To them it’s simple as pie — it’s about skinnin’ cats.