In fact, one of the advantages of social media is that it can work for you, instead of you doing the work – and this is what we mean by scrappy social media. Just because social media runs the world, doesn’t mean that you can set all other strategies aside. Once you make a personalized connection, customers are encouraged to continue doing business with you – even if it costs them an extra dime. Where big businesses lose customers due to frustration with automation and inability to receive assistance, it is possible for small businesses to shine. Human nature encourages personalized attention and connection – and good customer service incorporates exactly that.
With the ability to automate customer service in the last 20 years, big business has lost the personal touch that so many people need and appreciate. Customer serviceīigger businesses often miss the target when it comes to customer service and customer support. By starting as a Harvard-only social network, gaining trust and a loyal user-base, and then slowly expanding outwards – first to related niches (other universities and high schools), and then to the general public, Facebook was able to become the dominant force in the social media network world. If you need an example of why slow and steady conquering of niche groups is your best growth strategy, look no further than the story of Facebook. This circle of trust that slowly grows will eventually allow you to compete with the large business market, and will allow you to own the niches in which you’ve worked so hard to establish yourself. If you make sure that your initial niches are satisfied, and are receiving a unique service from you, their trust will follow. Once you meet the needs of a smaller group, you will have that group’s trust – and they will be the ones to help you spread your services to related groups. This is because a small group has very specific needs, and specific needs are much easier to meet than generalized ones that will cause you to spread yourself thin. Your job as a small business owner is to cater to the smaller niche groups that are largely ignored or left aside by big businesses. The saying about being a Jack of all trades, but a master of none is true – you can’t have it all in the business world, especially as a small business. When it comes to competing with bigger companies, it pays to know your niche first and foremost. And this is how McDonald’s went from small business to an empire, and how Ray Kroc became owner of the McDonald’s name. Ray Kroc believed in this idea, and franchised it. But the McDonald brothers weren’t getting too far with this idea, until Ray Kroc came along. The idea was genius, innovation at its best – no one at the time had seen anything like it. McDonald’s was a project started by two brothers – by replacing waiters with a self-service counter and pre-packing burgers that were kept warm under heating lamps, they were able to quickly and cheaply provide food to customers. Positioning expert Al Ries suggests that faith in your ability to innovate is as important as the innovation itself – and one of the biggest companies in the world, McDonald’s, proves just that. But it’s not enough to just be innovative, you also have to stand by your ideas. Breaking into the market requires innovation, and innovation doesn’t happen overnight. Methods to Compete with Larger Businesses: Innovationīehind any successful business is the idea at its foundation and the belief that this idea is worth pursuing.
0 kommentar(er)
