Dr Andrew Fowler from HFL Risk Services gave a presentation at The Heath in Runcorn regarding the 4Ps of process safety. These are Plant, Procedures, Process and People. He said he thought the most important P is People.
This made me think.
Marketing has 4Ps too: Product, Place, Promotion and Price. The most important P (arguably) is Price. Why? It’s the only one that brings in money.
Of course, that’s very simplistic. All the Ps are needed to ensure successful marketing but it’s worth thinking about how important each one is.
For service marketing the 4Ps have been extended to 7Ps. The 3 extra Ps are Process, Physical Evidence, and People.
I’m going to agree with Andrew Fowler and also suggest that the most important P is People. Not just in service marketing but in all business to business marketing.
In consumer marketing the customer relationship tends to be with a brand. People are only part of that brand.
For business to business, the customer relationship tends to be with people (who represent the brand). These people are generally staff members. The interaction with any staff member and the customer is fundamentally important. Everyone should endeavour to make the customer experience a good one.
That’s the core concept behind customer service. Every member of staff must understand this and aim, at all times, to serve the customer.
