Standing out from the crowd as the economy rebuilds

To stay ahead of your business peers and sustain a competitive place, you need to be informed, clearly differentiated, and visible. You'll also benefit from treating your customers with care, so other companies don't lure them away. The imperative to stand out this year is strong — recent research from HubSpot® shows 87% of companies say customers have higher expectations than ever before.

Achieve a competitive advantage in the current business environment by:

Knowing your market

As the economy rebuilds and your customers return to post-pandemic living, the way they buy and use your company's products has likely evolved. Buyers for a tutoring company, for example, may permanently prefer the convenience of digital sessions, law firm clients may now demand e-signatures as an option, and medical practice patients may opt for telehealth for routine appointments. Consider polling customers either by speaking with an informal focus group, or through more formal tools to larger numbers of people. Survey your audience — using affordable tools such as SurveyMonkey^TM, QuestionPro®, or Alchemer — to learn what they most want. For more on adapting to change, see “Should it Stay or Go? Evaluating Recent Business Pivots”.

Conveying what makes your business unique

Understand what you can offer that differentiates your product, service, or company, and precisely what generates value to your audience. It might be your company's unparalleled expertise, its quick turnaround, or access to hard-to-find items.

One of the best ways to arrive at this clarity is to create a unique selling proposition (USP). If you already have one, now is a good time to retool it to reflect current opportunities. When someone reads your USP, they should learn — or be reminded of — why you're the best choice.

Your USP should include the following elements:

Our target audience is ___.
They need our offering, which is ___.
Our company/product/service is called ___.
Our competitors are ___.
The unique thing(s) that sets us apart from our competitors is ___.
Our unique benefit(s) is ___.

Raising your profile

Company visibility helps prospects learn about your business. It also builds your reputation and expert status with potential and existing customers — 67% of respondents to a survey, by The Manifest, said they made a purchase after seeing an ad in social media.

Stay competitive this year by raising your profile with the high potential prospects and customers you value most. One way to do this is to determine which social media platforms your targets frequent, and commit to having a regular presence there.

Some easy ways to do this include:

• Keeping your followers up to date about new products, special promotions, and recent projects.
• Putting a human face on your business by highlighting someone on your team.
• Posting polls or contests connected to holidays or special events to create engagement.
• Sharing posts, videos, or photos that people post about your business.
• Highlighting testimonials or positive comments by customers about your business. Bazaarvoice® research shows that 75% of shoppers use reviews to help them evaluate products.

Taking care of your customers

To keep people loyal and happy, establish a protocol for addressing customer dissatisfaction. Any member of your staff who interacts with customers should understand how to treat them, and what steps to take to ensure their problem is addressed.

Coach client-facing staff first on how to listen to and empathize with customers' frustrations. If a situation can't be solved by the employee, create an escalation process to get a manager involved. If a problem can't be resolved in a way that satisfies the customer, make sure you have a process to explain what happened, and offer an alternative or apology.

Economy reopening: Snapshot

• U.S. Census Bureau data shows the number of startups was up 51% in 2020 over a typical yearly average.
• Unemployment this spring dropped to half of what it was this time last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.