Engineering and Toothpaste

At Enserca Engineering, we have taken a step back to evaluate the service challenges in the engineering sector. We reviewed the typical project life cycle and listened to our clients to discover that the services we provide are evaluated very much in the same way that we would choose toothpaste. Let’s face it, most of us have concluded that no matter what brand of toothpaste we choose they all will do the same thing.

This appears to be the same for engineering firms. All brands of toothpaste claim to clean, whiten, prevent cavities, fight gingivitis, etc. Engineering firms claim to develop engineering, project management, design drawings, provide procurement, etc. For this very reason, we believe the engineering services industry has become commoditized like toothpaste. Over the past several years we have heard clients communicate overwhelmingly that whichever engineering firm they choose the performance will be relatively the same and certainly the general expectation is to squeeze the “same stuff” out of the service provider. So, how is the choice of a brand made? Clients choose a brand of service (engineering firm) based on a favorite brand or person (taste), has the lowest price or happens to be available (first one on the shelf purchase).

We have recognized some key contributing factors that cause clients pain when deciding on and dealing with an engineering firm. In order to avoid some of this, we have implemented training and development modules for our employees to better equip them with the necessary tools for more effective communication. Our strategy is to build highly effective professional teams and therefore help minimize our customer’s pain. This tangible investment in our staff reduces the amount of time spent learning the client-vendor communication styles and therefore become more valuable in co-creating successful projects. Thus, an interaction traditionally based on pain is transformed into a proposition focused on value.

To learn more about engineering firms and toothpaste, contact Greg Downs.

Click here if you would like to read some of our Toothpaste Reports.