You Can’t Market on Customer Service

When I evaluate the viability of a niche with an advisor, I always ask what they offer to that niche that other advisors don’t. If I get the answer, “I provide better service,” I send them back to the drawing board.

The truth is, you can’t market on customer service! Sure, companies like the Ritz-Carlton and Nordstrom attract customers based on their reputation for stellar service. But they can do this because they have millions of customers who can spread the word. When you only have 100 clients, you don’t have enough people to generate word-of-mouth marketing about your service.

At the end of the day, being the best at customer service is hard to prove, hard to maintain a competitive advantage for, and even harder to market.