Smart Ways To Add Value To Your Business This Year

We’re all seeking businesses which resonate with customers and become profitable. It’s an aim which motivates small business leaders all over the globe. And the simple secret to it? Simply that of finding a way to add value. Value comes in many forms, so your paths to adding it can be varied, but the overall aim will see you able to meet the needs of your customer much better, market to them better and provide a better experience, which should lead to improved sales figures.

Add On Some Speed

One way to increase the value of your offering is to add speed to your processes. Today’s consumers have increasingly short attention spans, and the success of next day delivery and services like Amazon Prime prove that consumers are willing to pay for convenience. Speed makes people perceive what you have to offer as more valuable in most cases, so take advantage of customer impatience and get your product or service to them faster. From recurring subscriptions on fast dispatch to prepackaged medications ready to go, convenience is the new drug of the masses – so if you can do it quicker than your competitors it should pay off.

Offer A Higher Level

Adding value is also about creating a superior offering to anything else in the market. Pay close attention to your quality controls and make sure that your product or service goes one further – then make this a central part of your marketing strategy. Remember that your ideas on quality may not be the same as your customers – use surveys, informal qualitative feedback and social listening to establish how you can better improve what you have to offer or what your customers think competitors do better. Being responsive and shaping your offer around feedback is a great way to be in tune with customers and offer them a better deal.

Improve Your Service Offer

It’s funny that in the days of global corporations, what people seek tends to be the personal touch. Good, old fashioned customer service never went out of style and in fact, with the advent of ratings sites and social media the results are seriously amplified. A few bad reviews on TripAdvisor can close a badly run restaurant. A few key influencers creating social buzz can propel a brand to the next level of success. It’s a double edged sword that works both ways, but get it right and word could soon spread. Think about what you need to do to up your service offering and make it more personalised.

Offer More For Less

Although getting into a war on price with your competitors is a surefire race to the bottom that won’t benefit you at all in the long run, and making price the sole flagship of your offer is not going to work out, there is a place to offer strategic discounting where appropriate. You need to find your way to sell higher volumes of your product or service to a wider audience at lower price. Think about ways you could cut out surplus costs to offer something unique. Emerging models such as cosmetics company Beauty Pie have found that offering a luxury product in a no frills manner and cutting our distributors in favour of a direct relationship with the customer is a profitable model which still allows them to give substantial discounts. Find a way to offer a lower price while retaining a comfortable profit margin for yourself and you’ve found the magic formula.