How to stand out from your competitors

In a highly competitive marketplace it can be difficult for a business to attract new customers and promote brand loyalty. Businesses that fail to keep up or surpass the competition end up struggling. Here we have compiled the joint knowledge of years of hands on experience, combined with information from trusted sources, to help you devise a plan to stand out from the crowd.

Unique selling point

Many competitors will offer similar products at similar prices; you must therefore highlight what’s different about you. What do you think makes you the better option for potential customers? What are the strong points of your business?

A few points to consider when making your product or service stand out:

Product related advantage

• Price
• Quality
• Better ethics (Greener, healthier, etc.)
• Smaller
• Safer
• Better design
• Longer guarantee

Service related advantage

• Fast response times
• Longer opening hours
• Excellent customer service
• Employees expertise

Excellent customer service

One of the greatest ways of standing out from your competitors is to offer excellent customer service; it can be implemented for little or no cost. By keeping customers happy and going the extra mile you will encourage them to stay loyal and help spread the word. A happy customer will also be willing to give back by providing things such as case studies and quotes, which can be useful when promoting your business.

To provide excellent customer service consider the following points:

• Under promise over deliver
• Listen to your customers
• Maintain excellent response times
• Deal with any complaints or issues

Evolving with the times

It is important to make sure your products and services are up to date, and your competitors do not leave you behind. You will need to stay on top of industry developments and/or be innovative. If your company fails to stay current and follow emerging trends, then it’s possible you will become out-dated and customers will go elsewhere.

Listening to and acting on feedback is a great way to keep your business ahead, it also helps you to get a general feel for what you’re doing right and wrong. Knowing the aspects your customers love helps you to make decisions that move the company forward in a positive way.

Encourage customers to recommend new ideas or improvements by offering them a reward for constructive feedback that’s implemented. This will contribute a wider range of ideas and give you a better chance of being more innovative. Many companies use this as a way to get customers to interact with their brand, e.g. Walkers Crisps running a flavour competition. Customers can enter a desired flavour and have a chance of wining £1 Million, plus the recognition of having their flavour put into production. This saves Walkers the market research, idea generation and an alternative marketing campaign, which would probably cost considerably more than £1 Million. The end result is an innovative new flavour that is already popular (due to the public voting system) and will generate a large amount of sales.

Look professional and be approachable

It’s fairly easy and cost effective for even small companies to adopt a professional phone system these days. An Internet phone service provides a wide range of features at an affordable price. You get the benefit of features like IVR’s or call queue, which help you to manage calls effectively. A professional first impression inspires confidence and builds credibility, and is part of the key to standing out from others.

One of the recent trends we’ve noticed with some company websites is they hide their contact details and don’t interact with customers over social media. We feel it’s important to be approachable so customers can provide feedback or ideas (as mentioned above) or receive help and support. This means your company needs to be available by whatever means the customer is comfortable using. Being active on Facebook, twitter, email and your phone gives potential and existing customers options to get in touch on their own terms, and allows you to respond accordingly.

By constantly looking for ways to improve your business and stay ahead of competitors, you dramatically increase your chances of attracting new customers whilst retaining your existing ones.