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Written by: Kevin Gardner
Because of how simple it is to start a business today, many markets are incredibly oversaturated with hundreds of companies that appear to be offering nearly identical surfaces. If you are a business owner, you likely know how difficult it can be to remain interesting and relevant to consumers at all times. You always need to be aware of trends and keep innovating so that you do not fall by the wayside in the minds of your customers. Here are five ways that you can make your business stand out from the status quo and remain interesting.
1. Find New Clients
If you can continue growing your client base at all times, your business can always at least remain stagnant, even if you are losing past clients to competitors. This does not mean that you should prioritize new customers over old customers. Customer loyalty is very important. If you are having trouble finding new places to gain clients, you can always try using b2b lead generation services. These services give you access to many new clients based on the specifications you need and the clients that will likely be the best fit for you. With these leads you can try making cold calls, approaching them organically, or doing whatever else you can to gain their favor and their business.
2. Customer Service
Many companies do not put enough effort into making their customers feel cared for. People like to feel like they are interacting with a human entity who has empathy for their plights and can help them to a full, human extent. People do not like dealing with robots that have a set number of possible replies or with phone lines that take forever to connect to anyone. The way you handle customer service can be the difference between adding or keeping a loyal customer and pushing him or her far away from you. Never leave your customer service department understaffed. In extreme circumstances, it can even be beneficial to send some of your excess employees to take customer service calls.
3. Recognizable Branding
Having an iconic image or slogan associated with your brand is one way to wriggle your way into the minds of consumers regularly. If you make frequent social media posts, which you should if you are a serious company, always punctuate those posts with something that alerts the viewer about who made the post. That in addition to a recognizable profile picture or a unique style of posting will implant your company in the viewer's brain even if he or she only grants your post a quick glance. If you are recognizable at a glance, you will have so much free real estate in the minds of the people who see your advertisements.
4. Customer Loyalty Programs
If your customers have an incentive to keep returning to your business time and time again, they will not only return, but they will be enthusiastic about it and potentially recommend your business to others. Customer loyalty programs can involve any number of things. You know your customer base better than anyone else, and hopefully, you know what they want from you. These rewards can be discounts, merchandise, or any other perk you are willing to give out to a wide audience. Even if people perceive that your competitors offer better deals than you do, a large majority of consumers admit that they will be more likely to return to companies that have worse prices if they have loyalty programs.
5. Admit Mistakes
Despite the facade that many companies attempt to put up, no business is infallible. Businesses make mistakes more often than they would ever let on. It is irresponsible to constantly profess every mistake your company makes because you do not want to come off as incompetent, but you also cannot pretend that you are perfect. As mentioned above, people like it when the businesses they interact with feel human instead of robotic. Perfection is robotic. Imperfection is human. If you have a public mess-up, own up to it. Your customers deserve to know the truth, and as long as you can assure everyone that you are working to fix it, they will be grateful for your honesty, and your business will be less likely to suffer as a result.
All publicity is good publicity. That proverb holds true, especially for businesses, and the more publicity your business gets due to its uniqueness and innovation, the more successful it is likely to be. It can be easy to blend into the massive crowd of nearly identical businesses and settle for being a moderately successful businessperson who makes a meager living. But if you want more than that, you have to be willing to be creative and stand out from the crowd no matter how much work it takes.