Cleanse your palate with a little sorbet before the main course.
I like to dine out, and not at your typical fast food joint or chain restaurant. While I don’t mind paying more for the dining experience, I find myself often walking away thinking that was nice but not really worth the money. Your marketing ideas are what thrills your customers and will cause them to pay more for your products or services.
Like the photography industry, the restaurant industry faces extreme competition. And they struggle with differentiation just as much as any highly competitive industry.
So how do you differentiate yourself so that people are happy to pay more for your products or services? Or at the least, don’t think twice about it.
A large part of achieving this is in how you frame the value you bring to your customers.
Are you an everyday kind of business or a business for special occasions? People are willing to pay more for something they see as a not-too-often investment. Explain that you’re a special occasion business in order to begin setting expectations for a larger sale.
Do you do things that make people want to talk about you after they’ve had an experience with you? Giving your clients little surprises make them smile and want to brag. I’m willing to pay a little more when you astound me with your service. By paying attention to the seemingly little details, like the server communicating to the pastry chef a birthday is being celebrated and a personalized message in chocolate sauce being presented the dessert plate. At the end of the day was the dessert really that much more delicious than one I could have purchased for half the price at a less expensive restaurant? No. But the experience made me pay more for the dessert and not bat an eye. This kind of attention to detail doesn’t have to greatly impact your costs, but pays incredible dividends in customer experience.
Do you give your customers reasons to pay more for your products and services that aren’t just quality related? (i.e. saying I use the highest quality frames or ingredients isn’t enough). You likely face competition who offers the same high quality products that you do. It’s how you frame the buying experience of those high quality products that will set you apart. Treating your clients like they are special and they mean something to you is how you really win them over.
What are you doing in your business to differentiate the experience you offer from others?