What is a competitive advantage? A competitive advantage is when your business is viewed by your customers as providing a higher value than the product or service of your competitors. Certainly, having a unique product or service is one way, but can and will often be easily duplicated by a competitor. However, to create loyalty, your customers also seek an emotional connection with you. This can be a major advantage and competitive edge to differentiate your business from the competition.
The emotional connection that your staff and business create will give you an advantage over the competition to deliver what your customer really wants. Not just having a different product or service. Every business should know what their advantages are.
Let’s ask and explore these questions:
- What advantages do your products or services have over your competition in the marketplace?
- Which of these advantages create a compelling reason for customers to do business with you?
- How do your create emotional connections with your customers?
- What are you doing to insure continuous, never ending “memorable” experiences to your customers as to not become stale and to differentiate your business from the competition?
I often conduct this exercise throughout the year with my coaching clients to keep them on track. Sometimes I am surprised when they tell me that they don’t know what the advantages are. Think about this. If you don’t know, why should your customers know. Many will describe their features or amenities that they provide but any business can duplicate that. In other words, what are the benefits that you give them that will differentiate your business? Remember, it doesn’t have to huge differences or revolutionary in your industry. It just has to make an emotional connection.
It is not your compelling product or service that will create customer loyalty. It is a better customer experience that becomes the emotional connection and reason for your customer to become loyal. The question you really need to ask- “If you’re your business suddenly magically disappeared, would your customers miss you or just find some other business to satisfy their needs?”
If the advantages that you wrote down did not exist or no longer existed, would your customers even notice? Will they feel emotionally disappointed? If you don’t have points that differentiate you from your competition and create a significant emotional connection with your customers, then you won’t be missed.
When you create a compelling advantage, you expand the life span of your product or service, differentiate your business from your competition, build lasting relationships, create a ‘word of mouth’ buzz and customer loyalty for life. Now that is one way to make your Customer Experience Magical!