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How to Distinguish Yourself from Other Service Providers

June 24, 2021

Most than likely, your business is overlapping multiple providers within your sector, this is nothing new or disconcerting, it is a part of every business and must be tackled head-on, with the correct measures in place, you can give yourself a competitive edge.

Since you and your rivals compete over a common target audience, your marketing challenge is to set yourself apart, to win over the customers attention by playing on your strengths and unique advantages over your competitors. With countless approaches to distinguish yourself, below are some stand-out options which you can incorporate into your business today!

Branding Tone & Voice

Start internally and align your branding tone and voice to speak directly to your target audience. With appropriate alignment, upholding a consistent tone and voice across your marketing and media channels, allows your brand to embody a character so your communication will reside with your target audience effortlessly. Offering value by creating a persona, your customers can form a bonding relationship, improving the likelihood of capturing their attention. Trying to connect with incorrect tone & voice is like speaking another language, they might decode the message with difficulty, but they are more likely to lose interest.

Appeal to your customer needs

Aimlessly pitching your service will not draw in customers, you must fulfil their needs, so try to understand from their point of view, to offer a solution. This involves extensive research and development, to tweak your service over time, in line with changing demands. When you thoroughly understand your customer, you will be able to offer solutions before they even realise, enabling you to react before competitors, giving you the advantage. 

Focus on your uniqueness

Avoid futile battles promoting your service the same way as competitors, you are more likely to lose customers, instead, skip the obvious points and focus on what sets you apart, for example, all cleaning companies clean, but highlighting child/pet-friendly chemical-free solutions will stand out. Don’t be being lured into the false promise of level competition, every company has a unique approach they can apply, so find your one focus point and push this service feature.

Give added value, not just the service

Your customers can receive the same service from many providers, so entice them by adding something to sweeten the deal. It could be aftercare, or an upsell if you have expertise in a related field. Offering additional value will create gratification, receiving something more than they were expecting.

Loyalty and Perks

A loyalty reward arrangement will help you stand out, with the customer openly aware that there is an incentive after a predetermined duration, attracting customers and importantly encourages long-term relationships. Perks work similarly, but with more immediate rewards, such as a one-day-only promotion.

Customer Service

The nature of a service provider is to sell a service as their product, this places great importance on customer service, making it essential to distinguish themselves. Listen to your customer’s feedback, understand what they identify as your strengths and weaknesses, then use this information to help your customers choose you, by highlighting your strengths and improving your weaknesses to dominate through quality, this will result in organic referrals, emphasising your dedication over competitors.  

Conclusion

To sum it up, distinguishing yourself from competitors comes down to your unique attributes, effectively highlighting them is the key to entice customers. The smart way is to approach differentiating yourself is to develop your brand’s persona to promote your unique features, to resonate with your target audience. 

An article by Gautam Gajjar.