We all know the world is changing at an ever-faster pace and on many fronts. While this rapidly shifting economic landscape is creating new business opportunities, it is also forcing companies to respond to new client expectations.

Whether this is fixing mobile technology on the move rather than returning it to the workshop, or providing a ‘same day’ response to a call about servicing, customer demands are growing.

All this is overlain by trends in globalisation and overseas innovation, as well as the emergence of ‘Generation Y’ both in the workplace and as consumers. Generation Y is impatient when service is perceived to fall short, they expect to have information on a product or service ‘at their finger tips’, and they require free and open access to a company’s knowledge base.

Thanks to Generation Y, ideas, news and information travels faster than ever before, with social networking sites delivering feedback direct to thousands of potential customers within minutes.

The reality is that UK business strategies need to be more agile then ever before. They also need to be alert to sector trends and the expectations prevalent within the environment they operate within. And they must adapt quickly to enable them to survive.

What this requires is a company-wide focus on customer service; a vital part of any and all transactions. This is where service providers should come into their own because managing this process in future is likely to be very challenging.

The world is becoming a more complex place, moving at an ever-faster rate.

I think that the big global conglomerates in future will be built around multiple offerings. And I believe that the requirement for agility, flexibility and dynamism will bring with it greater borderless collaboration between companies.

Outsourcing, I think will be far more, not less, common going forward; joint ventures and partnerships, on-shoring and off-shoring offering companies size and scope as well as a more “agile” business model.

This creates a scenario where customers and suppliers become part of a complex, interactive network of companies where, ultimately, who is “the customer” is not an easy question to answer, and where brand influence will need to extend beyond several companies in order to deliver the brand promise to the end user.

In the IT sector that Qcom operates within, there is already a complex web of customers and suppliers. We operate as an accredited service partner to manufacturers, providing customer support. However, our customers may be distributors, who sell their products to end-users through resellers, or resellers themselves; it’s a linked chain of customers and suppliers through to the end user.

IT manufacturers, resellers and distributors understand that customer after-sales packages add value, build customer loyalty, and impact directly on the bottom line. The challenge of delivering good service for everyone, however, has been made harder with the advent of the aforementioned mobile technology, the need to reduce down-time, and a demand for bespoke service packages.

Each of us needs to play our part in order to ensure our processes meet the needs of both customers and end users.

It is for these reasons that corporate thinking needs to be aligned (or realigned) around customer-centric activities and responsibility for delivery should rest with the Board.

There needs to be far greater awareness that customer-facing staff, such as service engineers, are important brand ambassadors. They can act as the eyes and ears of a company, capable by turns of spotting trouble brewing, and (just as importantly) identifying new business opportunities.

With this should come an understanding that around half of the modern service call is fixing the customer not the technology, educating the user on the best use of the systems they are operating.

In other words, product servicing is about people and every service call should be treated as a ‘moment of truth’ which can either add value or seriously damage a product/company in an instant.

Where all or part of a service operation is transferred to an outsourced supplier, it’s usually done to allow the client to concentrate on their core business, to move into new (unfamiliar) markets, or to allow them to complement the service they already offer customers in these areas.

Technical outsourcing expertise, for example, can help resellers and distributors enhance their profitability and it can support business development and expansion across the UK and Europe.

But the relationship needs to be managed and where possible, companies should be looking for this notion of borderless collaboration with their outsourcing partner.

Our relationship as an outsourcer goes way beyond being placed in a ‘supplier box’ with clients, or indeed just white labelling our services.

We are now at the point where we are invited to collaborate with clients when they are pitching for new business, helping to formulate strategy around areas such as customer service.

Achieving this requires the relationship to go far beyond that of supplier-client, but instead brings best of both companies to bear in order to deliver a superior outcome. And that, surely, will be a partnership that ultimately serves the customer better.