Example of service provider developing trust with client for mutual profit

My experience with traditional agencies has been on the negative side, however there is a service provider I really like who go it right.

This business, called Eservices Email in Australia, has been an e-mail services provider here since 1999. Their services are not the cheapest, nor do they try and compete with their US and global competitors on R&D or technology spend. Instead, they built their entire business around service first and ‘bright and shiny objects /tech toys’ second. They apply this model consistently across every client they and serve and have recognised significant growth as a result.

The approach gained my respect as the person managing their commercial contract while I was at a large media and publishing business. Because they often over delivered for my business, I Was more willing to work with them to resolve the occasional issues that came up. In turn they worked hard to ‘think’ about how we operated and were instrumental in our overall email success. Because of their value add service, we saved at least $200,000 one year based on their advice and guidance that they did not charge us for.

This value add in the relationship is something many businesses don't see on paper and fail to acknowledge. I think this is the lazy power play way of doing deals and not conducive to long-term success. It starts with recognizing the provider is out to make a profit too – but within the relationship and its boundaries that are reasonable. You often see service providers pull away from the value add and strategy offerings because they are often not rewarded or valued for it. I was able to quantify this and worked to assure that their contract stood the test and review of our internal audits for over 5 years.

The final piece that really bonded me with this supplier is that I could trusted them to evolve their service with my business and its own evolution. I even set aside some ongoing development funding knowing that working with them for future service ideas would help reduce our overall costs and increase our ROI overall. When I asked their Managing Director about how other clients worked with them he mentioned several clients who do the exact same thing. This transformed our relationship into a very productive alliance that delivered ROI for the business.

When I have spoken to their CEO, Simon O’Day, I have always admired how the principles of the business started with 3 people or so and grew to 40 staff in his core business as well as a group of 4 businesses with nearly 80 overall staff in 10 years in ~7 years. No matter the size of the business, their culture and core philosophy has not changed. He did admit that it gets harder as you scale up but you have to stick to your heritage and address your failings honestly as they come up.

This is a practice that I not only advocate to other service providers, but one that I will adopt in my own service provider business.