It is very easy in business to end up thinking in terms of your own industry. If you are in construction, for example, you might find that you view everything through that lens – how businesses in construction best reach their audiences could be one of the trends that you follow in hoping to answer that same question. You might find it less common that you look outside of this lens to other businesses.
However, there are several times that business is a more broad term, and several practices remain consistent regardless of the specifics of the industry. Recognizing this might be able to help you stay one step ahead of your competitors through a reinvigoration of your approach.
Marketing
Perhaps the biggest deviation here comes from that previous discussion – marketing your brand and expanding your audience. It is, as always, a multi-faceted topic, though. While there certainly are companies that specialize in marketing for construction companies, and these help to utilize the trends within the industry to help you get ahead, does that mean that every beneficial form of marketing for such a business can only be found here? Such professionals can help to identify the best way forward for your specific business, tapping into those unique qualities that make your brand identity what it is.
However, have you ever used social media marketing? If so, you are in the same camp as a huge swathe of businesses from any number of different industries. While construction companies might use this tool in a specific way, there might also be some approaches that are simply more generally successful.
Social media is a great tool for gaining customer feedback, for example. You can do this by linking surveys to other platforms that host feedback forms or using the in-built tools that many of these social media platforms have to host polls or otherwise instigate discussion. The percentage of your audience on social media is worth considering when taking these results into account, however, as you do not want to make drastic decisions based on the opinions of a slim percentage. That being said, it can give you access to what some of your audience who use social media have to say, which is part of the greater whole.
A PR Situation
If your business finds itself in the unfortunate position where it is gaining a lot of negative public attention, you’ll need to think carefully about how you can best weather the storm. The response that you ultimately do (or don’t) make likely isn’t going to find its origins specifically in the industry you work in, though that certainly could help you identify some precedents. Instead, learning about how businesses should (and should not) respond to this kind of attention can help you avoid making the situation worse.
When criticism is mounting, it can be tempting to try and get out ahead of it by responding as quickly as possible, but this might be the exact kind of reaction that leads to a response that stokes the flames further. Conducting research into the dos and don’ts of PR can help you work with other business members to identify the best way forward, even if the answers lie in a field that feels completely disconnected from your own.
The reason that this is an area that often does not have the same kinds of industry boundaries as other elements is because of how audiences like to be treated. If you are in the public eye for a negative reason, it might be due to how there is a perception of what you’ve done wrong from the perspective of the public.
This might be something that is important to remember when you’re thinking about your response. Again, while the temptation will be there to very much defend yourself, it’s a time when all eyes will be on you, and every word you put out to address the situation will be heavily scrutinized. Utter transparency might not be something that you feel is in your best interest, but a certain level of sincerity and understanding can certainly go a long way when applied correctly.
Customer Service
In that case, it is no surprise that customer service is one of the elements that can remain consistent throughout different fields of business. There are going to be very specific variations in how you actually interact with your customers, of course – some types of customer service are going to be entirely digital or over the phone, while hospitality-based customer service is going to be much more about meeting certain needs. The basics, though, will remain very consistent.
This is useful for your business for several reasons, perhaps because you have an incredibly deep pool of history and knowledge to draw on when you are trying to improve yourself in this regard. Due to the differences that manifest in different industries, not every business will necessarily think it worth their time to invest as much time into this – especially if they do not spend a huge amount of time interacting with customers compared to others, for example.
Again, though, it does not take many negative interactions for a pattern to emerge. Even if you interact directly with your customers irregularly, if those interactions are consistently negative, that is an impression that might end up sticking and spreading. Mastering the basics, and ensuring that every relevant member of your team is trained to deliver solid customer service can prevent this from being an issue.
You might even be surprised at how often you do interact with your customers. While the term ‘customer service’ might make you think of interactions over the phone or at a counter, even how you respond to queries and comments on social media can make an impression. Sometimes, this will be about retaining your tone of voice, but you might often find that delivering quality, helpful, and informative service is more valued and remembered – even when the interaction is a brief one.