How to Set Yourself Apart From the Competition

It's been a couple of weeks since our last blog post. Bad on us, but we have been out-of-town, busy little bees. One of us is back (me), so I thought it was time to update the 'ol blog.

During my recent travels to Denver, I found a shocking discovery. Maybe it shouldn't have come as quite a shock, but it did. It seems as if more businesses these days are offering less and charging more. And us consumers don't have much of a choice.

You want to fly somewhere? Fine. Except, there are now added security charges post-911. Well, we can all look at that and be sort of okay with it in the name of increased security. Oh, but you want to check a bag? Well, even though we are charging more to make up for the increase in fuel costs, we now need to charge you extra for your bags to make up for the increase in fuel costs. Huh? Wait, didn't I just say that? Hmm. There must be an echo in here. Need to check your email in the airport? Yup, that's extra (although many are now offering free wi-fi - thankyou Denver, Oakland, Portland, and Tampa). Are you hungry? You can purchase a meal on-board if you don't have the foresight or the time to grab something in the airport. That'll be $5.00 please.

Just when you thought all the extra charges were over with, you arrive at your hotel for a brand new round of charges. While the room costs $167 per night, the hotel no longer offers complimentary continental breakfast. That will be $20. If you don't like that you can mosey on across the street to Starbucks and purchase a less expense breakfast. Have a rental car? Every time you take it out for a spin, the valets are standing, hands out-stretched, ready for a five-spot. Bring it back in to be parked for the night? Well, you get the idea.

By the end of my last business trip. I was ready to scream with all the extra little fees here and there.

So, this points to Captain Obvious: If everyone is charging more and giving less, all you have to do to stand out from the competition is go that extra little mile and offer better, faster service than your competitors.

We recently surveyed a group of business owners and found that one of the most pressing things on their mind was, "How do I stand out from the competition?"

Nobody wants to go broke trying to offer a bunch of things for free just to try to stand out. That's not the point. The point is to offer better and faster service or offer something unique.

Let's take the Sheraton hotel I stayed at in Denver as an example of not doing this. It's a pretty nice hotel. I came to terms with the fact that their restaurant wanted to charge quite a bit for a buffet breakfast. It was pretty delicious in fact. The biggest problem I had with this hotel was the total lack of free wi-fi. It was actually quite shocking that they wanted to charge me a per day fee to use wi-fi in my room. Because I refused to pay, I trekked down to the lobby each day to use one of about seven computers where I could check my email for free.

I'm sorry to pick on the Sheraton here, but even a lesser quality hotel, such as the Best Western, offers free wi-fi, hot buffet breakfast, free parking, etc. To be fair and choose a hotel on the same level as the Sheraton, most Marriott hotels include all these things when you stay as well.

As a business traveler, if I had to pick one thing out of all the above that would have made my trip great, it would be free wi-fi. What if I want to Skype my family from my hotel room? Or send an important business email without worrying about others peeking over my shoulder (which by the way happened three times at the Sheraton - oh, yes it did!).

You can take things on a large scale and talk about airlines offering front of the line boarding priveleges to passengers traveling without carry-on baggage (ahem, yes, I'm talking to you Virgin America), or we can go smaller and talk about how the little guys scattered all over our country with small businesses can stand out.

Here are a few ideas:

• Get to know your customers on a one-to-one basis by having them follow you on Twitter or fan you on Facebook. Why is this important? Because you can get intimate with them (so to speak) and find out what's really on their mind.
• Are you a hotel, cafe, airport, restaurant? Offer free wi-fi.
• Give special discounts if people shop on certain days at your store (whether online or brick and mortar).
• Schools, colleges, and institutions can offer a gift card for a local cafe or restaurant to existing families and alumni/ae that refer prospective students in the door.
• Restaurants can send postcards offering a free appetizer with a meal purchase for anyone that comes in on a particular day (pick your slowest day of the week).
• Send a thank you card to your clients at Thanksgiving instead of during one of the winter holidays. People get bombarded with cards at Chanukah, Christmas, and New Year's, but when was the last time your realtor sent you a card for Thanksgiving? 
  

Think outside the box and try to come up with ways that are unique to your business to offer something special to your customers.

You can take it one step further than this, and look at how you can authenticate yourself from the other businesses similar to yours in your marketplace. This is getting into the subject of looking at your brand and what makes you unique. Next week's blog will delve further into this topic, but hopefully I've given you some food for thought.

Here's to stimulating the economy and bending over backwards for the customer (rather than having the customer bend over).