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Ways to Disrupt Your Competition with Customer Service

How do you stand out while disrupting your competitors during a competition, if not the entire industry? How can you be the most convenient company in the world? So, here are ways you can compete – and disrupt – your competition:

………..Stop comparing yourself to your competitors……………

………..Be amazing on social media……………….

…………Respond quickly to every customer inquiry or comment – A quick response time can make a customer say, “Wow!”

Other convenience principles will help you create loyalty and gain market share.

Reducing Friction

Reducing friction means making it easier for the customer to do business with you. Amazon does this really well on their website by making it easy find the item you want. If you’re already in their system, you’re done in just one click. To make reordering simple, they have created dash buttons for hundreds of different brands.

When you are running low on a staple item such as laundry detergent or toothpaste, you just push a button and it is delivered within a day or two. They’ve made it so convenient, you don’t even have to go to your computer anymore. With the Amazon Echo, you can ask it to do everything from place an order with Amazon to turn on your TV.

Consider what Uber did to the taxicab industry. If you want a cab, you have to call the cab company and wait for the taxi, with no idea when they would show up or what the ride was going to cost to you. Then you had to pay for it manually. Uber reduced all of that friction, saving you time and aggravation.

Self-Service

Panera is an example of how self-service can actually prove to be more convenient for the customer. Instead of standing in line at the counter to place an order, Panera provides the option for customers to order and pay for their meal at a kiosk. When you place your order at a kiosk you are given a pager, then you take your seat at an open table.

The tables have sensors built into them;  when your order is ready, you don’t have to get up because the server already knows where to find you.  You might think with these advancements they wouldn’t need as many people standing at the counters and supporting customers, but they’ve never eliminated employees. Instead, they’ve moved the people at the counter to food delivery, allowing those employees to better engage with the customer.