The Competition is Anyone the Customer Compares You to
I learned this from Disney. One of the ways people experience Disney is by telephone. Disney gets thousands of calls every day. Many of the calls are from the same people who call businesses that are known for their great telephone service. Businesses like LL Bean, Cabela’s, and FedEx.
So when the same people who call Cabela’s or FedEx, or anyone with superior telephone service, call Disney, Disney understands that they are being compared to the service people get when calling Cabela’s or FedEx. Disney then does what they need to do to “compete” with FedEx’s telephone service.
So the lesson is, don’t just think of your competitors as the businesses that sell the same things you do. Think of the competition as anyone who deals with your customers in any way. Learn the best practices from anywhere you can, determine how you can use them in your business, and implement them.
Here’s an example of how we did this in our business. Many years ago, we did what everyone in our industry did. When we got an order for a stock item it shipped two to four days later. I happened to call Cabela’s to get some fly fishing supplies and they said the order would ship that afternoon. So, thinking of what I learned from Disney, I said to myself, “We need to do that,” and we did. Today if an order is received within 30 minutes of our FedEx pick up, it ships that day.
You can get my hardcopy book (not an e-book), The Happy Customer Handbook, 59 Secrets to Creating Happy Customers Who Come Back Time and Time Again and Enthusiastically Tell Others About You at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com. Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.
