Have you ever thought, how do I make my business unique? How do you possibly set yourself apart from your competition?
I think this is something that we all think about as business owners because there has to be a reason people come to you. Why are they drawn to you or your business? These are very important questions to ask yourself. Are you doing things? Are you providing the best customer service? What is setting you apart from others? And most importantly, other business owners. That’s what I wanna cover with you today.
I’m so passionate about my business that I have to constantly look at how can I keep improving and how do I make my business super unique and unique to the point where people want to continuously come back! This is very important. So I want you to think about it. Think about your business practices. Think about your mission for your business. Your vision for your business. And really be able to look at that and wonder from that, are you in the right place for your business? Are you making it unique? There has to be a few principles of how you make your business different from other businesses.
I think many people struggle with this. Constantly keeping up with other businesses popping up, competitions, and the copy-cats out there and all of that. So the fundamentals of creating unique things about your business are key.
I’m gonna give you an example of my grooming business and why it is unique in it’s nature. And one of those is customer service. If somebody wants to speak to me, the owner, I will definitely call that person up right away and speak him. Because I care. Because I wanna know what they want to tell me. I wanna build relationships with these people. I want them to know that I’m very much involved in my business, love my business, and that makes my business unique. Because I will get on the phone with them and not every business owner does this. This might seem very little but this has a huge impact on people’s businesses. And that’s something that I’ve created in my business, to be unique. I want my business to be very unique.
Another aspect of creating my business and having it unique is there’s a personal touch. I spend the extra time with people, not only speaking to them but I spend time. I wanna learn about them. I wanna know what’s going on in their family life. I wanna know because those are the kind of relationships that I want with my customers because they’ll continuously come back. Because I truly do care. I care about their livelihood. I care about their pets most importantly, but I care about them and their lives.
I sometimes shock my customers when I haven’t seen them for about two months and they come back into the shop and I’m like “how was the move?” and they look at me like “what? How do you know that?” They forgot that they told me. But the truth is I remembered and I made sure to pinpoint that I knew when they moved. I wanted to make sure that their move went well and I cared. I carry that conversation with me for 6-8 weeks because I wondered about them. I wanted to know how they were doing. And so I asked them, followed up with them the next time they came in. And that’s probably gonna stick with that person every time they walk into my grooming business. They will realize that I thought about them and I’m invested in them. And that’s really important to me.
Another aspect of my business of how I try to be very unique is when I’m checking in a dog and I’m talking to the customer, I listen. I listen, listen, listen, and then I talk. I wanna see what they wanna say. I need to hear what they’re saying. An example, somebody came in and their dog’s nails are so long, they want them short. And they said this 2-3x in one minute span. So what I wrote on the card is “Double check nails. Make sure they are short.” So I took something they said, I pinpointed what they need in that very moment, and that need is they wanted their dog’s nails short. So I then checked out this customer. I picked the dog, I showed them the nails, I spent the extra time showing them the nails because I wanted them to know that we cut them short. And I told them we can only get them so short. That simple process, the extra few minutes, really showed the customers I was invested in them during that time and I wanted to please. Aim to please, always. This is just an added uniqueness that I showed this person.
So I’m giving you these examples and they’re little tiny ideas that separate me from other businesses. But they’re key components of my business. It makes my business unique because I’m investing time. Time I want to give them. And not always do I pinpoint every person, but when I start hearing repeated things the customer wants to see from us, I take note. And I make sure to follow up with them. I make sure they’re pleased with their need.
So find out within your business how you need to show, you are going the extra mile. What makes your business unique? I would try to come up with 2 or 3 ideas that really set you apart from other people. And the more times you do those, you will be recognized for who you are and what your business stands for. And when I say what your business stands for I always go back to the mission of my business.
When I look at my business and I look at how I’m serving to my customers, I always go back to the mission. Am I serving these customers the way I need to? If somebody’s unhappy I go back to the mission statement and review it. Am I delivering on how I started my business?
This is huge, you guys!
This is huge to go back to this key component you created for your business and live by it, stand by it, honor it, because that is the reason you started your business. That is the mission. That is the vision you wanted for your business so stick with it, go back to it. Maybe in your mission statement you wanna say what makes you unique. Maybe you want to pinpoint, maybe you want your customer to know.
My customer probably doesn’t know that one of the things that make my business unique is that I try to listen and I make sure that I find the pinpoints from my customers. They might not know that I try that for every customer but because I did that with them, they know the value that I have within my business and that’s important.
So think of 2-3 things that makes your business unique. If you have a hard time, ask your customers. Ask them why they come back, ask them what they like. You will then know that things you might not even recognize you are doing but people see it in you. Find those things out and totally go with it.
Make your business unique.
Separate yourself from other businesses.
You will stand out, you will shine. I promise you that.
