Productivity Knowledge Base: Productivity as a marketing tool

One huge benefit of enhanced productivity is its marketing potential. Other benefits also exist, as the partial list below shows:

• Improved quality. Productivity gains come mostly from improved work procedures, processes, and tools. Improved worker skills also come into the mix. All of these improve quality as well as output.
• Decreased stress. Managers under constant pressure to outdo the competition can easily be overcome by a shroud of stupidity as they focus on meeting short-term goals. The fear, uncertainty, and doubt this produces is not good. The result is stress at the upper levels, and that stress spreads to employees throughout the company. Don’t think customers can’t see it.
• Improved creativity. Every company needs new ideas. When a company makes increased productivity a prominent goal, ideas come from every quarter. People begin to think in ways other than "how we’ve always done it." Breakthroughs large and small push the company ahead of the competition.
• Improved scheduling. Because productivity enhancement measures typically b ring quality improvements, you are going to have less rework. Rework adds costs, but more significantly it interrupts the flow of work and disrupts schedules. Many managers allow X hours per week for rework, in an attempt to stay on schedule. Think about how pathetic that is. Rather than fix the problem, you build in time to suffer from it. Productivity improvement is the better approach.
• Increased flexibility. As productivity rises, the amount of time required for each job or project shrinks. This means each block of time normally consumed in doing a job or project is smaller. Smaller pieces are just simpler to manage. You can fit in the occasional rush job or emergency work much easier, and that means getting premium prices for your work.

The above list is by no means complete. But, it gives you insight into how improving productivity produces far-reaching benefits. But, we still haven’t answered the marketing question. How can increasing productivity give you a marketing advantage significant enough that your increased productivity is a meaningful marketing tool? Think about the following slogans, and how they would influence you as a potential customer:

• See us for faster turnarounds.
• We do the job better, but in 25% less time.
• We built quality in.
• We do it right the first time.

When your customers see that your crews work in an orderly fashion, keep the work area neat, don’t have accidents, progress rapidly, finish on time, seem to know the best way to do things, use checklists, don’t forget key steps, and seem happy about their work, what do you think your customers are going to say about you? Will they want to use you again and refer you? What if one or more of these elements are missing—will they be as likely to use you again or refer you?

The idea here isn’t to say, "Hey! We are more productive than our competitors!" That isn’t something your customers typically care about. What they do care about are the results of productivity enhancement. In addition to the benefits mentioned in the previous paragraph, they are also most likely going to get a competitive price from you while you operate at higher margins than do most or all of your competitors.

Because your people are more productive than normal, you can afford to pay them more without eroding your margins. That means better retention. Retention brings lower costs of training, lower costs of hiring, more continuity of company knowledge, more continuity of important customer relationships, and a slew of other benefits.

In short, when you invest in productivity, you sharpen your company’s competitive edge. By improving productivity, you are able to provide more value to your customers. That increased value can differentiate you from the competition—and allow you to avoid being priced as a commodity. Your marketing message can then go after the best customers rather than those who are looking for the lowest price.