Winning With Service

IF MACHINE-TOOL BUILDERS WOULD TEACH THEIR ROLE MODEL SERVICE STRATEGIES TO THE AUTO INDUSTRY, MAYBE ... * Carmakers would emphasize innovative service strategies to compete and grow sales potential. * Auto showrooms would be reassigned to focus on delivering on-going educational value to the existing

Those quips are extrapolations (slightly exaggerated) of how various providers have innovated service strategies to deliver new customer value in industrial equipment. The motivating factors go beyond accommodating both the growing technological complexities of machine tools and the traditional cyclical nature of the industry, says Mario Winterstein, business development director, the Association for Manufacturing Technology, McLean, Va. He sees a third major motivator-competitive differentiation-"especially in certain basic machine categories where the look and feel of the equipment is very similar. In those instances service has become the means to get closer to customers."