True competitive differentiation

Do you really understand what is important to your customers and clients?  What is your point of competitive differentiation that separates you from the pack?  After your own assessment of the issue, if high levels of competence are on your list, you may be ignoring what is truly important and meaningful to your customers.  Customers are assuming competence and expertise in your business; that’s a given when they call or visit you.  Relying on competence alone, when seeking to separate from your competition is like a hotel seeking new customers by advertising they have clean sheets and towels.

You should be looking at areas of service and behavior that have seen historical failure in your industry, or common complaints that are specific about your local competitors.  A rich area to mine information is local forums and postings.  This is not to say that competency isn’t important, it’s the baseline structure that you build your business upon, it’s just not enough. Great examples are contractors and tradesman. These are frequently small or even one-person businesses. Communication and customer follow up are difficult due to lack of office or administrative staff. However, a company that follows up quickly on a customer request or better yet, answers the phone on the first call is frequently far ahead of their competitors.

Find a similar example for your business and simple actions can truly separate you.  

PerSyst Consulting Presents - Your Competitive Edge: Assessing and Improving Back Office Performance and Return

 

Seizing Competitive Advantage: Agility Through Technology

PerSyst is excited about our upcoming event focusing on seizing competitive advantage. Downward market pressure is requiring businesses to reevaluate operational efficiencies, overhead expenditures and capital investment. These reviews inevitably return to process improvement and reengineering initiatives. Technology deployment is a key mechanism for immediate gains in these areas. The recent focus on technology as part of process initiatives has reinforced the fact that if poorly executed, these efforts can cripple a company’s momentum.

With this in mind, PerSyst and four companies have teamed to provide insight to Seattle area businesses at our upcoming symposium. The focus on this event is to provide key and valuable takeaways that businesses can utilize for immediate impact for stability and growth. This symposium is open to all businesses wanting to attend at no charge. For more information, click here.