The Only Competitive Advantages Your Company Will Ever Have

Excerpt from "Zappos: Delivering Happiness":
"...a big reason we hit out goal early was that we decided to invest our time, money, and resources into three key areas: customer service (which would build our brand and drive word of mouth), culture (which would lead to the formation of our core values), and employee training and development (which would eventually lead to the creation of our Pipeline Team)."
"...our belief is that our Brand, our Culture, and our Pipeline (BCP) are the only competitive advantages that we will have in the long run. Everything else can and will eventually be copied."

Zappos is so successful in part because they put their resources (time and money) into 1) customer service, 2) company culture and 3) their people. When I read this I immediately starred it, underlined it, dog tagged the page, circled it - this excerpt stuck out like a sixth finger.

Think about it; processes can be copied and technology can be copied. Eventually a competitor will take your great idea, copy it completely, package it at a lower cost, and try to beat you. The only way you will win is by having great service and great people (culture helps cultivate these two things).

Yesterday the WAC held their quarterly Member Services Kickoff, which is when all the membership reps at the 6 clubs get together with the owners and GMs for ongoing training and education. One of our owners shared a story about a product called Zune. Microsoft came out with Zune shortly after Apple created the Ipod in an effort to keep up with Apple. Haven't heard of Zune? That's because Apple stuck true to the above 3 items (customer service, culture, and people) and kicked Microsoft's butt. Even though Microsoft created a similar product and a similar price point they couldn't keep up with Apple.

No matter how good the product, how low cost it is, or how big the company brand is - if your service isn't top notch, your work environment doesn't cultivate fun and creativity, and your people don't believe in it or aren't well trained then failure is imminent. You can put as much money into marketing as you want, but word of mouth spreads quickly (especially in the age of social media) and customers will go elsewhere.

What are you or your company investing most of their budget into? If the top three aren't: customer service, company culture, and employee training & development then you/your company aren't capitalizing on setting yourself apart from everybody else in the industry and sooner or later that will catch up to you, effecting your long term success and bottom line.