COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

Competitor Research involves looking at your competitors, what they are offering, their prices, their customer service, their website and how they compare to your business. Customer Care will provide you insight on your competitors which will allow you to identify and beat competitive threats and gain you market advantage!  

Marketing strategies like this are essential and are a forward looking approach for businesses.  They have the  ultimate goal of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage and market share by understanding the needs and want of customers.  It will help you keep your current customers and obtain potential customers by increasing customer satisfaction which will then lead to customer loyalty. 

In today’s fast changing and increasingly competitive industry, what you don’t know CAN harm you.

Your business needs to stay on top of your market and this has never been more important or more challenging.  If your competitors have an edge, it becomes viral by the use of social media.  Keep on top by learning what they are offering, how they are interacting with their customers and how they perform in comparison.  From this you will learn what you do better and what they do better. 

BENEFITS

• Learn what is happening in the market
• Understand your target market
• Avoid threats
• Use the results to get the competitive advantage
• Simple and easy process with no extra costs
  

If you have a customer facing business, it is not only important to see how your own staff and stores are performing but to learn how your competitors are performing.  Having competitive intelligence means having INFORMATION and learning what your competitors are doing and offering is simple with the implementation of a Mystery Shopping Programme with Customer Care.  We offer no set up costs, no reporting costs and no contracts. 

Customer Care have experience at implementing competitor analysis campaigns across various industries. The process is easy and hassle free.

The first step to keep you informed and behind the scenes of your competition is to determine who your main competitors are so you can compare the data accurately.

Direct Competitors are businesses in the same geographical area as your business that offer a product or service that could pass as a similar substitute for yours and therefore fulfill the same customer needs that your business does. These competitors are the ones that will create the most competitive pressure for your business.

Indirect Competitors are those that provide products or services that are similar but not the same and could satisfy the same customer need and although they are different, they target the same customers. Apart from targeting the same group of customers, they also aim to satisfy the same needs.

When comparing your business, you should only focus on your direct competitors. 

One of the biggest barriers holding businesses back from doing competitive research is a lack of direction. What information should you look for and what matters most to you about your competition? 

Customer Care will work with you to develop detailed questionnaires/scorecards which will target the areas that are identified as being the most important for you and your business.

WHAT INFORMATION YOU CAN OBTAIN

• Determining what products and services your competitors are offering is the best place to start.  Look at the range of products/services on offer which will then allow you to compare your own product/service range objectively and make improvements where needed.

• What is their online presence and experience like? Look at the websites of competitors and the online experience of customers.  This can be anything from enquiring about products and prices to online purchases.  What do customers think of the website design and ease of use and how does it compare to yours? How is the communication when enquiries are made etc?

• What prices and pricing strategies are they offering? What loyalty programmes do they offer? Doing a price comparison will allow you to stay ahead and informed.

• What is their value proposition (this is an innovation, service, or feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers)?

• What is the customer experience like?  Competitor analysis can be done either online, via phone or as an in store visit.  What platform is used, it is vital to know what the customer experience is like in order to raise your own customer satisfaction. 

A good example of a competitor analysis is one for a new home builder.  There are many new home builders all providing the same product and service and there is strong competition in this business.  It is vital to know what competition is offering, what land they have available, what plans they are offering at what price and what the inclusions/exclusions are.

Customer Care work with this industry frequently and have a mystery shopper visit the clients own business and then their main competitors.  We do not inform the shoppers of the client so that all data obtained is objective.  At the conclusion of the shopper looking at the websites, phoning the sales consultants and then visiting the show homes, we then ask which builder they would choose and why. 

Questions and information that can be uncovered are extensive and can include:

• Website - ease of use, how easy was it to locate show homes and prices etc
• First Impressions - first impression of the sales consultant and the greeting.  Was a refreshment offered?
• Interaction - was the consultant interested in your enquiry and ask questions in order to ascertain requirements in a new home? Was the sales consultant confident and knowledgeable?
• Pricing - was pricing available and discussed?  What was the quality of appliances and fittings?
  
• Vision - Did the sales consultant use a Unique Value Proposition or reiterate a vision?  What was it?
  
• Establish - Did the sales consultant establish what you required in a new home, your timeline, your budget, where you wanted to build etc
• Competition - Did the sales consultant talk negatively about other builders in the area?  If so,what did they say?

This is just a snippet of the VALUABLE information that can be obtained by completing an analysis on your competitors.  Our mystery shoppers will gather the required data on your competitors and complete a report online.  You will then be given a login and user name to access your own customised portal with extensive reporting.  All of this is free of charge.

LEARN what your competitors are doing and boost your business by learning your strengths and weaknesses.