THE 4 P’S OF SERVICE STRATEGY

Competition is extremely fierce in the world of business, only a handful survive, and some can barely keep up with the demands of the times. That’s why it is necessary to have an idea of what it takes to be successful and an integrated strategy to help maintain excellent service results.

ITIL discusses at length the four “Ps” of strategy– perspective, position, plan, and pattern, each of which represents a different way to approach your service strategy. Brief summaries are provided here:

Perspective – This is basically the vision statement of an organization. Why is it in business, why is it doing what it is doing? What are the plans and ideas for the future and how does the organization interact with its customers? A perspective cements a service provider’s distinctiveness in the minds of the employees and customers
Positions – What is the competitive landscape and how will the organization compete with other similar providers? What is the key distinction between them and other businesses in the marketplace and what are the capabilities that set them apart? Positions are not just a description of different processes and resources … it could be as simple as cost.
Plans – This is the big one … it takes into account the vision and the current position and talks about the future. How will the provider move from one space to a future space? What activities need to be done and how will they be done?
Patterns – Hum, drum day-to-day … what does the organization or business do, how does it do it and what will it continue to do to be successful? This is the housekeeping stuff that needs to be completed correctly for an organization to meet its strategic objectives.

The thing that I’ve always liked about ITIL is that it isn’t esoteric or anything like that. It is simple common sense and the 4 P’s are a perfect example of this

About Author

Hutch Morzaria

I am an ITIL Expert and extremely passionate about customer service, customer experience, best practices and process improvement. I have led support, service, help desk and IT teams as well as quality and call center teams in Canada and the UK. I know how to motivate my teams to ensure that they are putting the customer first.

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