business

It is always essential to acquire new customers, but repeat business is what keeps the lights on. Losing customers can quickly erode your business income. Actually, for most businesses, keeping existing customers is almost more important than seeking new ones.

Repeat customers tend to spend more money over time and promote your business among their friend circle. 

Better Customer Service

The way you interact with your customers will determine if they will stay with you or not. Customer loyalty is very important; you want to build a bond of trust and understanding. You should connect to your patrons on a personal level. Try to find some common ground and build on it. A business that interacts with customers in a cold and robotic manner is driving away from a reliable income source. Simply smiling and asking a customer about their day is a good start. 

One bad encounter can damage a relationship, so always handling customer inquiries quickly and professionally is important. Always treat the customer with respect, even if they are not being too nice to you. Try to see the issue from the customer’s point of view and empathize.

The most critical aspect of customer service is to listen. You should not tell a customer that you will “keep that in mind.” Instead, discuss with them how they would prefer the issue to be addressed and try to work it out. No one wants to feel like they are being given less importance or ignored. 

If a customer has an issue with your product or service, resolve it as quickly as possible. The faster and more effectively you can solve a problem, the more likely the customer will remain loyal.

Regularly seek feedback from your customers about your products or services. This will make them feel valued and help you understand their needs and preferences better.

Quality of Product/Service

The quality of the product or service determines your business success. If you fail to show value, they are unlikely to return. Of course, every company has a budget and it is impossible to add bells and whistles to what you offer.

Look at how you advertise your product or service and ask, “Could it be better or is there something important that I’m not telling customers?” Improper marketing can lead to a lot of confusion. For example, sometimes, they fill bags of potato chips halfway with air to keep them from being crushed. However, most customers feel ripped off as they expected more chips inside. If you blatantly trick a customer, they will never come back.

Attitude/Culture

Establishing a healthy workplace culture will have a positive impact on your sales. It is important that you treat you employees with as much respect as you would a customer. When employees are happier and more energized, customers tend to notice it. Likewise, happy workers will pass along good vibes to the customers. Having happy employees will also result in a lower turnover rate.

Your employees should share the same value as you do, rather than simply being employed to make money. Being honest to a customer can build a lot of trust.

Competition

You can lose customers to competition if they offer superior service, especially if you have not established trust and brand loyalty. If your competition has a superior product or service, you must revise your offer. In the end, what you offer will be vastly improved because you were forced to adapt. Competition can keep your business fresh and alive.

Ensure your pricing is competitive while still allowing your business to be profitable. If your prices are significantly higher than your competitors, customers may choose to switch. Implement a loyalty program that rewards customers for repeat business. This could involve discounts, exclusive offers, or points that can be redeemed for products or services.

You should constantly re-evaluate how your business interacts with customers. Taking criticism positively and customer feedback will help your business grow stronger. More importantly, it will show the customers that you listen. 

 

Shortly after the birth of humanity, there were two factions of humans, Neanderthals and Sapiens. The Neanderthal was smarter, stronger, quicker, and tougher than their weaker and less intelligent cousins. Surprisingly, Neanderthals all but died out, and Sapiens began to dominate most of the continent. How could this have happened? Sapiens were incentivized to improve in order to keep up with Neanderthals, who had no incentive to change. Over time, the sapiens were so adapted to change that they found themselves more equipped to deal with problems as they arose. This scenario greatly reflects how businesses can prosper when facing competition.

Competition seems to come off as a bad thing, especially for small businesses. At first, business owners might see competition as an entity that threatens to ruin their livelihood. However, the opposite is true, as competition incentivizes a business to improve and come up with more creative ways to fend off the competition. A small business that cannot adapt to the competition will surely die out. When faced with competition, there are several things one must keep in mind.

Competition makes product and services better

In order to win over customers, competitors are encouraged to make improvements that show why their product is best. Likewise, if one business has a superior feature, others will try to copy or improve on it. This constant back and forth ultimately leaves companies with better products or services than before. In a monopoly, a business might make a product with a specific function, but they would have little drive to improve on this product since they make them exclusively. Through constant reassessment, one might find design flaws hidden into their product much quicker. This could also spawn ideas for new products or services.

NOTE: One of the biggest mistakes which small businesses make is mismanagement of their accounts receivable or not having a systematic plan to handle them. If the recovery on your past-due accounts is not made on time, those bad debts would be forcefully written off as 100% loss in your accounting books. Engaging a Debt Collection Agency after accounts are over 60-90 days past due will improve cash flow of your small business and take the burden away from your staff.

Competition benefits your customers

When a company is constantly trying to improve their product more than a competitor, the customer reaps the reward. Competition often leads to prioritizing customer needs, leaving them with a better product or service than what they would have gotten from a business that had no incentive to improve. Prioritizing the customer can include having better customer service, product insurance, lower prices, or anything that leaves the customer feeling more satisfied with their purchase. Increasing customer satisfaction has many benefits, including brand loyalty, repeat business, increased word-of-mouth traffic, and increased employee morale.

Competition incentivizes a business to be more creative

Competition forces the business to think out of the box in order to stay ahead. In regards to a widget, a business might try to sell theirs’s at a lower price or tack on special bonuses. Alternatively, one might try to improve the speed and efficiency of there widget to make it operate better. A business with a marketing mindset might make the package of widget look more appealing, ultimately building a better brand. In most cases the answers for how to improve are not so clear. In turn, this leads to businesses investing more in Research and Development and to encourage more creative thinking in the workplace. Competitors are more likely to take creative risks in order rise above. The rewards often outweigh the risk. Competitors will also learn of success through failure, where one can learn from what they have done and adapt from it.

Creativity is valued most in the quest for innovation. Competitors will continuously try to find ways of outperforming each other. By practicing innovative business techniques and pursuing the next best thing, you are slowly increasing efficiency and productivity. A firm might choose to innovate the product, the process of making the product, or even the process of advertising the product. Regardless of how it is done, innovation and creative thinking can greatly benefit any organization.

Competition increases productivity

When faced with competition, a company must constantly reevaluate what they offer. This will encourage managers to focus on what sells and to decrease the focus on products or services that do not perform as well. This will make said company more productive. A 2015 study by the Competition and Markets Authority, Productivity and Competition: A Summary of evidence, claims that there are three reasons as to why strong competition leads to higher productivity. Firstly, “competition acts as a disciplinary device, placing pressure on the managers of firms to become more efficient.” When production is more efficient the employees will benefit. This can also have the inverse effect. Secondly, competition “ensures that higher productivity firms increase their market share at the expense of the less productive.” This is incentive enough for most to increase their output. If your business does not step up its production, then some other business will gladly take your place. Lastly, as was touched on briefly, competition encourages firms to innovate and push the docket of what is commonplace.

Competition Boosts Morale

It’s no surprise that giving teams a common goal to work towards increases morale. Employees need a clear goal to work towards less they become stressed and unsatisfied with their work. Business rivalries give employees a sense of pride in the establishment they work for. On a related note, competition in the workplace has been known to motivate employees and help them achieve more with what they are given.

Competition Helps Public Relations

Businesses in stiff competition would benefit from showing that their organization is not just a faceless corporation. By improving the efficiency of your organization, you can cut down on excessive resource use, ultimately helping the environment. This will make your business look better in the public eye. One business might try to take advantage of an environmental hazard by sponsoring a relief effort. Dawn Dish Soap gained a great deal of good PR during their “Wildlife Campaign” where they sponsored the cleaning of animals affected by the BP oil spill. At the time, the dish soap market was so over-saturated that there was little preference amongst brands. This PR move set Dawn apart from its competition in the eyes of consumers. This increased their revenue and public image greatly.

Competition, nothing new about it

Whatever service you provide or the product you sell or manufacture must have displaced the previous generation of product or technology. Competition is not new, it has always been there. Competition just forces you to come out of your comfort zone and take a step forward.

In conclusion, competition keeps businesses healthy by forcing them to adapt. A business that remains stagnant will be unsuited for unexpected change. Those who embrace competition usually benefit the most. It is through competition that businesses reach their highest potential.

Sources
https://www.infoentrepreneurs.org/en/guides/understand-your-competitors/
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/does-competition-make-us-more-creative
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249541
https://curiositystream.com/video/2065
https://www.nicereply.com/blog/importance-of-customer-satisfaction/
https://www.allbusiness.com/the-importance-of-creativity-in-the-workplace-24566-1.html
https://hbr.org/2014/11/to-encourage-innovation-make-it-a-competition
https://www.inc.com/bob-house/embracing-innovation-to-sustain-a-competitive-edge.html
https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2010.54533171
https://hbr.org/2017/03/the-pros-and-cons-of-competition-among-employees

The financial service industry is integrated daily into the lives of hundreds of millions of people throughout the world. Whether it be banking, financial planning, or accounting, without these services, the economy as a whole would fail.

If you are thinking about diving into the sector and starting a company that provides financial services, building a strong brand image is vital to your long term success. Here are the 10 steps you should take to launch you ahead of your competition.

Step 1 : A Strong Leadership

Top bosses of the company should not only focus on providing a valuable products and a good customer service, they must be equally employee-centric as well. Motivated employees provide a strong foundation which is required for building a stellar brand image. Adequate steps must be taken to ensure that the approach of top bosses inspires, strengthens and unites employees. Hiring people who understand your brand value and believe in it. Opening proper communication channels between employees and the leadership. 

Step 2 : Determine your ideal client base

One of the most important steps to take when it comes to starting any business and/or developing a strong brand, is to find out who your clientele is. You start doing this by asking yourself some questions. What financial service am I providing? What age group do my services appeal to? What is the income level of my ideal client?

Continue asking yourself more and more detailed questions about who you want to provide services to. Narrowing your audience down to a specific audience can make your branding a lot more powerful. For instance, if you are starting a financial planning firm that specializes in retirement planning, you may want your target audience to be people that are within 10 years of retiring, and who may have the income to spend money on your services.

Once you’ve found out your client base, you can start building your brand using what you’ve learned, which begins in the next steps.

Step 3 : Determine your mission statement.

A mission statement, not to be confused with a tagline or slogan, is a written declaration of an organization’s core purpose and focus that normally remains unchanged over time. While your mission statement isn’t outward facing, it can have a tremendous impact on how your branding is built.

In simpler terms, your mission statement is about what you do and why you do it. A cause for your business. Going back to step 2, you need to create your mission statement that focuses around your targeted clientele. Going back to being a financial planner that specializes in retirement planning, your mission statement may be along the lines of “Our mission is to build a foundation for our clients future, that cultivates empowerment and freedom through personal success”

Your mission statement can be long or short, but make sure it builds a sense of trust within your company that will reflect outward toward your clients throughout your branding process.

Step 4 : Identify the unique benefits your services provide.

Banks, credit unions, credit card companies, and financial planning firms all provide more or less the same service, which is managing money. However why do you choose one bank over another, or one credit card over another if they essentially serve the same purpose?

The reason all comes down to the specific benefits that one company may provide that the other doesn’t. One credit card company may have great card benefits while another offers a low starting APR. Any benefits that you have that you can differentiate yourself from your competition is key to winning over clientele in the same industry.

Things that can set you apart are things like
● Exceptional Customer Service
● Lower Rates
● Better Availability
● Larger Selection of Products
● Better Efficiency

Again going back to step 1 be sure your benefits are appealing specifically to your target clientele. This step can be the make it or break it when it comes to successfully creating a strong brand.

Step 5 : Creating a logo that’s simple, yet bold

A logo is usually the first image that pops into someone’s mind when a recognized company is mentioned. This is the first step that starts to put your previous efforts into a visual representation.

Chances are that you probably aren’t a designer, so you may need to seek a professionals help on the technical side of this step, but the ideas are still in your control.

In today’s day and age, less is more. Your logo should capture the feel and objective of your company without being too flashy or space hogging. Your logo is going to be on every page of your website and on every document, every email, and every business card you hand out, becoming a crucial part of your brand’s identity.

If you look across the financial services industry, you will find that a large portion of the logos, are just designed text of the company name without any fancy icons or imagery, which works really well.

A tagline may also help set your logo apart from other companies. Going back to the example of a financial planner that specializes in retirement planning, you may use a tagline such as “retirement made simple” or “Retiring? We’ll take it from here”.

Step 6 : Determine your brand’s personality

What kind of personality does your brand portray? Think about what you want your clientele to think of your business when engaging with them.

Are you humorously personable, like Wendy’s with their twitter account, or are you more professional and concise, with a strict no nonsense approach?

While there isn’t a right or wrong persona to establish, the financial service industry may seem a little dull to some. Think about being different from everyone else and bringing a new light to the industry with a more conversational approach. Anything to separate yourself from the competition, in a good way, will help your brand mature.

Step 7 : Provide free content

Nothing strengthens your brand and entices future clientele quite like providing free content or products. If you have a website (which you should), try adding a blog section or a free resource section to add value for your clients and future clients.

An example of this may be an article that gives people a checklist of things they should do before they retire or how to guide on increasing your credit score.

You can then use this content for marketing by engaging on social media, which brings us to the next step.

Step 8: Get Social

After creating you logo, your brand is beginning to take shape, and you need to make sure to feed it so that it will continue to grow stronger. One of the best ways to this in this time of media and internet, is to start engaging on social media.

Consistently engaging and bringing content to people on social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, can significantly increase your presence and enhance your image because it shows that you are with the times.

Use your content from step 6 to really get people engaging with your brand and your business.

Step 9 : SEO

Along with the 2 previous steps, you need to be sure you are able to be found on the web, specifically Google. When people search for the services you provide, you need to be sure that you are showing up as a top result in google, that leads to your website and your content.

Going back to the example of a retirement planner, if someone is going to be searching for “retirement plan”, make sure your content is integrating those keywords so that future clients can be brought your way.

Step 10: Avoid Accounts Receivable mistakes

There is a strong relationship between debt collection and branding. Without a comprehensive accounts receivable management approach, you will certainly annoy many clients, who would have otherwise continued to give business for many more years. Accounts receivable may happen due to an oversight or even due to circumstances which are temporary in nature. Your approach on past-due accounts strongly influences a company reputation and ratings. Hiring only reputable collection agencies with vast experience in your field, who take adequate measures to avoid damaging your customer relationships is important. Hiring a good Collection Agency is an integral part of your brand reputation.

Step 11: Help the needy

A company which can demonstrate that it participates in socially-beneficial activities boosts its reputation. People get the impression that the business is being run by ethically nice and morally good people. Provide scholarship to some college students, participate in a local food bank’s activities or do something for poor kids. Not only you help the needy, but you will also create a rock-solid reputation of your financial company. Publish all those charitable activities on your website under the Blog or Events section.

Final Thoughts

Creating a strong brand image in the financial service industry is very similar to doing so in any other industry. The first and most important thing is to create your brand about what your clients want, and not want YOU want. Keeping products that are simple to understand and can be easily understood by your clients.

Also, consistency is key. Stick with your brand image and do not stray from it! A strong brand is not meant to be changed or forgotten. The key to staying relevant is to never stop marketing yourself and to never stop engaging in the community and online.

One last thing you should try to do is create professional relationships and partnerships. You may be able to partner with another company that also provides financial services, but lacks the services that you provide. If you form that relationship, many of their clients will be referred to you, further strengthening your brand and presence.

Your employees play a crucial part in the success of your business. Therefore, rewarding them with excellent workplace performance gifts that build their self-esteem, proves to them that you recognize their hard work.

This will motivate them to continue to contribute their best efforts to your business. Which is great because happier employees mean happier customers, and that leads to repeat business.

Instead of gifting your employees a meaningless pen, pen drive or mug, offer gifts that are unique and personalized to their specific interests. Your employees will love, keep and probably share them on social media. Try shaking things up with these unusual but meaningful picks:

Standard employees – category $ 20

1. Desk Organizer
Your entry-level employees are the engines of your companies. Gift them a nice Desk organizer to keep their desk neat and clean. It is a pen, paper and gadget holder and comes in a variety of colors so you can personalize it to their tastes.

2. $20 grocery shopping gift card
Gift cards are one of the most well-received holiday gifts. A grocery shopping gift card is a nice way to express appreciation and gratitude towards your employees.

3. Handy water bottles.
Reusable water bottles make great gifts. Your employees can use them during workouts and it’s a great way to show that you encourage a fit and healthy lifestyle and it is a way to prove that your company is conscious of the environment. To make it more personal, customize the water bottles to your liking and place your logo on them.

4. An aromatherapy Scented Candle
Scented candles are a classic and favorably accepted gift as they can help anyone make their home or office more inviting. The aromatherapy scented candle is perfect for relieving stress and are a great way to express gratitude.

5. Phone screen cleaner
A phone is a valuable asset that you want clean and neat all the time. Provide your employees with customized soft, lint-free or microfiber phone screen cleaners that will remove oily fingerprints and smudges from their phone without it damaging or scratching their phone.

2. Supervisors and managers – category $ 50

1. Spa Gift Certificate
A spa gift certificate for a massage or spa treatment makes a great employee appreciation gift idea as it makes a nice statement that you care about your employees’ well-being. A relaxing massage or spa treatment is crucial in a time where the balance between work and life barely still exist. It’s also memorable because it’s an experience, not an item.

2. Wine and Smokey whiskey Gift Bag
Gifting wine to employees has been a long-standing tradition. So why not upgrade and try something original? Something your employees have not received before? A complete wine gift bag with smokey whiskeys and apple and cherry wood sticks is something they’ll forever be grateful for.

3. Unique and classy 20,000 mAH power bank
With great look and feel, comes the Aukey power delivery bank with a capacity of 20000mAh. Portable chargers are extremely well received for the simple fact that everybody has a phone. In today’s busy life, many people simply don’t have the time to charge their phone throughout the day, meaning that the phone will be low on battery by the end of the day. Put a smile on your employees’ faces with these high-quality portable chargers.

4. Fire TV Stick
Relaxation is an important part of every human being’s life. The Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and volume, and mute buttons to control your TV, soundbar, and receiver is a nice way to show that you encourage relaxation after a productive day at work. It also signals to your employees that you are not in the business to overwork them and that you rather have employees who receive proper relaxation and are well rested because only then they are at their most productive.

5. $50 grocery shopping gift card
Regardless of the position, an employee holds in a company, a grocery shopping gift card is always well received. Employees are extremely fond of shopping gift cards because it offers them the freedom to purchase whatever they want. So increase your managers’ happiness with a $50 gift card.

6. Monogrammed blanket:
You can always buy this personalized blanket from a nearby store or from Amazon.

Department heads – category $ 100

1. Mall Shopping Spree: $100
Spending money on something you really want – not something practical is everyone’s dream. Your managers have been working hard all year, making sure the company is experiencing continuous success. Show them your appreciation with a $ 100 shopping spree gift that allows them to purchase whatever they want.

2. Cooler/Warmer
More than your basic cooler, this clever contraption can help you keep drinks and snacks cold for a picnic or even keep hot dishes warm on the way to a potluck or holiday party. You will always have enough space to keep a multitude of snacks and beverages close at hand, and will keep all its contents fresh and ready to consume.

3. Golden Vineyard Gourmet
A one-of-a-kind gift designed to put a big smile on your managers’ faces. This gift basket includes several bottles of delectable wines. The feast continues with truffle cookies, masterpiece chocolates and a variety of other fantastic sweets. The basket can be themed to your company and industry with logo and corporate colors.

4. Smartwatch
How about something trendy! Something managers can wear all day and every day? As time is our most precious gift, why not add a nice wristwatch to your managers’ gift bag? Managers will love this and most likely will be wearing it all day.

5. Travel alarm clock
People travel for various reasons; it might be for business or just a fun vacation away from work pressure. Chances are that some of your managers travel a lot. A portable alarm clock with a calendar, torch, and wide range of world time cities can be a great gift for them.

6. Bluetooth earphones or Earpods:
Modern-day earpods or earphones that pair with your cell-phone are a perfect gift for joggers.

Over to You

Rewarding your employees with more than just standard employee benefits is a great way to ensure they continue to work diligently to the success of the business. The gifts you choose don’t have to be expensive, but they should have value to the individual receiving it.

Businesses need to raise the price of their product or service from time to time. Price increases are sometimes necessary to keep your business going while offering excellent services to your customers. However, companies always risk losing customers or making customers angry unless it’s done with a proper strategy.

In this article, we will share top tips from renowned entrepreneurs on how to increase prices without losing customers.

1. Announce the price increase in advance

Honesty is an essential attribute in business. Let your pricing be transparent, so your customers will appreciate what they are paying for.

If you are a large company with a lot of media attention and a large customer base, then you should consider announcing the price increase in advance. Means, this should be done before the new price takes effect. It could be in the form of a press release on your business website. Give your customers time to allocate funds for your price increase.

2. Explain the reason for the price increase

Promptly tell your customers why the price increase is necessary. Provide adequate information. For instance, if you sell products, the reasons for a price raise can be due to an increase in manufacturing cost, higher minimum wage, transportation, tariff, and others.

Try not to give an impression that you are doing it merely for the profit.

3. Consider your timing

Timing matters a lot in everything, especially during a price increase. The best time to raise your prices is when the majority of your customers are deeply satisfied with your product or service.

It would be wrong to increase prices after you just had a few bad customer reviews or complaints. You should improve your product or services a few months before raising your prices.

4. Raise price gradually

Instead of increasing the price in one swoop, you should consider a more systematic approach. Though this may not work for all businesses, the idea is to try to raise prices as little as possible, and not too often.

For instance, if you offer services, you can consider raising your prices by a few dollars every six months.

Alternatively, you can increase the prices in badges. First, start selling to new customers at the increased price and then gradually increase the cost for old customers.

5. Add extra charges

One way to easily get away with a price increase is to add additional charges or surcharge for specific reasons.  For example: If you run an online boutique or store, you can discontinue free shipping and pass it as an extra cost to your customer.

6. Offer another inferior + cheaper priced option

While this may not be feasible for all businesses, offering a second, less pricey option can be the trick to keep your customers happy. You can easily create lower plans with fewer features for your services.

Your customers will then have to decide between choosing value over price.

7. Offer more value

People usually judge the cost of a product or service by the benefit they get from it. So if you want people to pay more, you should offer more value. Consider adding up something extra that will cost you less, but would be very valuable to your customers.

For instance, customers will be willing to pay more if you offer a higher quality of the fabric. The same goes for food; when the food quality or the ambience of a restaurant improves, customers won’t mind paying the extra cost.

8. Find more customers

You have to come to terms with the fact that not all your customers will be happy with the price change, no matter how hard you try to convince them. Some customers are more price-sensitive than others, so you can’t keep everyone happy.

Even if you lose a few customers, there are still thousands out there. You have to work hard and expand your customer base, getting people that can rightly pay for your product.

9. Reduce the size

Notice the serving size at your nearby restaurant use to be bigger. Reducing the quantity by 5%-10% is a fairly legitimate idea, and customers do not even notice it, however if they do notice it then can very well backfire. While some customers would appreciate that you did not increase the price, others would confront that they would rather pay the increased price than a smaller serving size.

10. Discount on the bundle

Increase the price of individual products or services, but offer a discount if they are ordered together as a package.

You should also ensure that everyone in your company is aware of the new prices, to avoid unnecessary confusion.