XChange 2014: Customer Experience Is The 'Ultimate Opportunity' For Solution Providers

To start driving that focus in your business today, Michelli said that the strategy has to be more than just simply stating a focus on the customer. Instead, he said companies should search for what their "true north" is, comparing the company direction to navigating with a compass. He said that "north" might be different for every company, but uniting the strategy, employees and vision under a single focus will help the company build a brand and differentiate itself in the market, he said.

Ed Ahl, director of business development at Bedford, Texas-based Tributary Systems, said that he has found this to be true at his own solution provider business, where he tries to focus on after-sale service as a differentiator.

"People buy from people," Ahl said. "I think a lot of our industry has forgotten that."

Ahl said that his business works to treat customers "like family," which he said he sees customers responding to with loyalty. For example, he said that he has been able to hold the business of a local big bank customer, who told him that the bank continues to engage with them because of their services and human touch instead of working directly with vendors.

Ahl wasn't the only person in the crowd who had seen results from a customer-first strategy. Juan Romero, director at EGC Technologies, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based solution provider said, at the end of the day, providing a best-in-class customer experience is one of the only tried-and-true ways for solution providers to differentiate themselves in the channel.

"We are a systems integrator, but there are tons of system integrators and we represent the same brands many others represent," Romero said. "There is not a lot of differentiation between us and our competitors, so the only difference is how we treat our customers and what our relationship is with them. In the past few years, the customers we do the most business with are the ones we have on speed dial."

However, even businesses who have seen success already from a focus on the customer can continue to improve their experience. Ahl said that he planned to take back Michelli's idea of focusing the positive customer experience around a brand back to his business to help make sure that all of his staff are on the same page as they work to differentiate themselves through excellence in services.