There are many instances in which a ‘best-kept secret’ can be a good thing. For instance, when exploring a new city, finding that hidden-gem restaurant serving up delicious food away from the hustle and bustle of tourists can make one feel like an in-the-know local.
However, when it comes to running a business, having a best-kept secret is seldom a good thing. While keeping a company’s strengths a secret might not outright hurt said company, it certainly won’t help it either. Instead, companies should strive to leverage their strengths to gain an advantage against competitors and attract and retain customers. With that in mind, here are five tips businesses can use to help identify their next best-kept secret.
Five Tips for Finding a Business’s Best-Kept Secret
Listen to the customers
It may seem obvious, but the people who use a service or product are often the best equipped to say what is and isn’t working. Therefore, providing customers with effective communication solutions to reach your company and voice their opinions is integral to understanding which areas of your business they value. Thanks to advancements in telecommunications technology, such as virtual phone numbers, it has never been easier for customers to reach a business, no matter where they are located in the world. You can also provide your customers with brief surveys to identify any unknown strength, be it a current service or hardworking employee.
Consult with employees
Much like hearing directly from the customer, oftentimes employees have keen insights into day-to-day operations that otherwise might go overlooked by higher ranking staff. Therefore, it is important to provide your employees with avenues to make suggestions based on their first-hand experience. Not only will your employees value having their voices heard, but it can also lead to discovering your next best-kept secret.
Run an internal analysis
While customers and employees can provide invaluable insights into a business’s strengths, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t continuously self-assess. Running a SWOT analysis (short for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) allows you to gain a better understanding of what’s working, what’s not working, where improvements can be made, and pitfalls to look out for. In doing so, you just might identify an opportunity to better market an underutilized strength of your company.
Compare against the competition
In addition to internal assessment, external assessments of the competitive landscape are extremely important to understanding a business’s strengths. For example, in analyzing your key competitors, you could discover that you offer services they do not; or perhaps you might find that your business has streamlined processes that help your customers save time while your competitors do not. You never know until you look.
Talk to others
While listening to customers and employees can provide a wealth of information as to what you’re doing right, a lot of what you learn can be subjective. That’s why speaking with a trusted colleague or colleagues from within the industry can offer key insights into your business from those who don’t necessarily have a horse in the race. Not only does this provide a more objective look at your business, but it helps you understand how other industry players view your company.
Ultimately, finding the unsung strength of your business is about effective communication—with customers, employees, industry players, and yourself. That’s why it is so important to have effective business communication solutions. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to improve your business by promoting its strengths; take the necessary actions to discover your next best-kept secret as soon as you can.
