FOCUS ON VALUE, NOT PRICES
Consumers of everything from retail products to business services are becoming more and more value conscious as a result of the economic downturn. This has put downward pressure on prices which has resulted in many businesses cutting prices in order to remain competitive and maintain market share.
The customers of your business are in a money-saving mood but they are not automatically willing to sacrifice on quality. This presents business owners with a new challenge – to maintain a quality product or service but offer more value to customers at the same time. Your business can take advantage of this focus on quality by minimising price reductions and instead offer more “value added” to customers. Since customers today are more focused on value for money you must make them feel like they receive more “bang for their buck”.
Take a garden maintenance firm as an example. Instead of reducing their prices, they could offer more “value added” services free of charge to customers by offering, say a free 2-hours of hedge clipping, or perhaps a lawn “feed”.
The customer has now received extra value for the same price that they paid last year. The customer now feels that they have received value for money and the garden maintenance firm has managed to avoid cutting prices. Therefore the business and the customer benefit from the value-added approach (yes, I know that margins have effectively been cut, but if you aren’t rushed off your feet and don’t want to have to talk the charge back up again next quarter, this works).
As customers have become more focused on the value they receive, more and more businesses have implemented this value added approach. Tesco have done it by offering mobile phone services, car insurance and financial services in store. 3 mobile have done it by offering unlimited data usage plans to mobile phone packages. McLean Reid will give a free income tax consultation when you bring in your tax return papers. Now it is your turn to give your customers a little value added extra and avoid cutting your prices at the same time!
