Focus on Your Customers, Not Your Competition

Source: Amazon

Today’s customers expect value, quality, and speed. Focusing on how your can deliver on those promises is what will win you business.

Remember that great advice: focus on yourself, not on what others are doing. According to an article in Harvard Business Review, the greatest challenge your company faces today is not keeping up with your competitors, but keeping up with your customers’ expectations.

This is not to discount the importance of watching business trends and monitoring the competition. But, your primary focus should be on what your customers need and expect and if you are providing it.

What do customers expect?

In today’s digital age, your customers’ expectations wash away traditional boundaries. According to a report in The Economist Group, customers compare and contrast their digital experiences across all industries, even those that offer totally different products or services.

Do you stand out above the crowd? Ask yourself this:

Do you offer value, quality, and speed? Customers used to be willing to trade off one to get the other. Those days are gone. Today’s customer dictates that they want it all: lowest price, good quality, and fast delivery.
Do you offer what the “big guy” does in terms of product, service, and ease, but with the care of a small business people trust? The size of your business does not matter in a digital marketplace. But, you must offer the scope, scale, and influence associated with being big, while maintaining the creativity and personal service characteristic of smaller businesses.
Do you focus on helping customers to meet their objectives and needs? Do you share a purpose? According to an article in Harvard Business Review, what you provide ideally is not something you are going to do to them, or for them, but with them. It’s a journey you take together.
Do you offer an intuitive sales funnel? Customers expect you to be where they are, deliver what they want, when they want it, and how they want it. If they are shopping your site, leave, and come back later, they want to pick up where they left off. They demand intuitive ease and ultimate convenience while they shop.
Do you offer personalized customer experiences? Remember what happened every time Norm entered that television bar called Cheers? Your customers want you to know their name when they return, as well as their unique individual preferences, and they also want you to make relevant recommendations for products or services they may like.
Do your social media interactions inform and help customers? Your posts should not deliver a sales pitch. Social media content should be educational, entertaining, or support the needs and interests of your audience.

There are new rules businesses must follow today in creating the ideal digital journey for their customers. Focus your attention on exceeding customer expectations and answering to their unique needs, not on your competition.

About author Kate Lee

Kate has close to 20 years of experience working with a range of clients from senior executives at Fortune 100 companies to academics to refugees. She has worked both domestically and internationally. With experience in content development, business intelligence, demand generation, qualitative and quantitative research, social media, and forging strategic partnerships, Kate is recognized as an industry leader.