Competition among businesses is more fierce than it’s ever been. With endless information available to consumers via the internet, a customer can compare six different brands in a matter of minutes from their mobile device. In this age of endless competition, what is it that helps a business stand out? Here’s how to build a business in a competitive field.
1. Do Your Research
First thing’s first: know both your competition and your customers. That’s right. Research! Performing both market research to learn more about your customers and research on your competition will grant you valuable insight; which you can use to improve your business practices and attract more customers.
At the end of the day, you want to find a way to encourage your competition’s customers to use/purchase your brand. What makes your competition so alluring? What do your customers want out of their products? Who are they? Where do they live? What are their ages, genders, ethnic backgrounds?
These are all questions you should be asking. A good way to achieve this goal is to build customer profiles. That is, creating a customer from scratch that is your ideal customer. You’ll include things like age, background, gender, etc. From there, you’ll be able to seek out the customer you’ve described now that you know what they’ll look like.
Customer profiles are powerful tools for attracting the right customers to your business. If you have no idea who you’re selling to, how can you possibly market your brand properly? Gather feedback from current customers as well to help build customer profiles. Whether you send a survey via email, or perform a customer email through video conferencing software, this information is priceless when building customer profiles and marketing campaigns.
2. Maintain Values
Your business should have a fixed set of values that it stands behind; whether those are honesty and integrity, quality and service, or a combination of all four. Whatever your values are, it is vital to the success of your brand that you stick to those values, no matter the circumstances.
If your company made a mistake, and boasts a reputation of honesty, not owning up to that mistake can be crippling. Your customers will lose trust for your brand since you don’t stand by your own company values. Companies that stand by their values will always be trusted more than those that don’t; encouraging that all-important customer loyalty.
3. Provide Better Products or Services
What is it about your competition’s products that keeps customers coming back? The best way to attract those customers to your brand instead is to offer better products or services. This can be in the form of better pricing, higher-quality materials, or better customer service.
Customer service is a huge differentiator between businesses. In fact, in today’s market, customer service is one of the top concerns consumers consider when choosing brands. If you can increase your level of customer service to dwarf that of the competition, you’ll likely see an influx of customers.
Research how to create your products with higher-quality materials, or discover what kinds of cost-cuts you can make to lower the prices of your products or services. Lower prices are all well and good, but without quality and customer service to back them up, they don’t mean much to the customer. Think about it. Have you ever gone somewhere that offered lower prices, but also lower customer service and quality? You probably opted for a different brand.
Sometimes offering better products means shifting your finances around to allow for the greater cost of high-quality materials. If you’re not sure how to handle your finances, you can hire some help in the form of a financial advisor. Use the Careful Cents site to compare the best financial advisors in Texas.
4. Keep Your Promises
Keeping your promises in business can be pretty tough with so many variables in play. You’re usually at the mercy of service providers, suppliers, and other factors that you can’t necessarily control. However, it’s still important to the customer that you do your best to keep promises and maintain a certain level of integrity.
If you deliver a product that doesn’t have most of the great features you claimed it would in the ads, you’re not only dealing in false advertising, but you’re also creating a sense of deception around your business; which we shouldn’t have to say is bad for business.
If, for any reason, you can’t keep a particular promise to your customers, the best thing you can do is to keep them informed. The only thing worse than a broken promise is one with no explanation! Explain the situation to your customers, and also include a plan for how you plan to make it right. This will allow them to understand the situation and know that you’re not just being deceptive. Things happen, and it’s ok to break a promise once in awhile. Just don’t make it a habit!
5. Respect the Customers
The worst thing you can do as a business is to treat your customers like money generators. While it’s true that your customers are what keep you in business, you must remember that these are people you’re dealing with. We’ve all seen big business step on the consumer at some point, treating their customers like gravel beneath their boots. This is the best way to lose customers forever.
Respect your customers in your products and actions. A quality product with a good customer service team behind it will make your customers feel respected and valued; and will likely keep them coming back to your brand.
Conclusion
With increasing competition, setting yourself apart is becoming absolutely essential to a successful business venture. Keep the customers in mind, maintain your values, and don’t forget that customers are people too.
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