“Capture” your competitors’ customers to compete with them? Of course, no problem, many businesses still dream of doing so. Guy Kawasaki, author of the book “How to Drive Your Competitors Crazy?” gave an example of a “virtual” move by a pizza company in Colorado (USA). When deciding to conquer a new market in other states, this company announced that any customer who cut out two advertisements of other pizza companies from the phone book would receive a free pizza. Within a few days, most of the phone books lost countless advertising pages. And fans of free pizza had the opportunity to get to know the “stranger” from Colorado. Thus, killing two birds with one stone, this company not only “eliminated” the advertisement of its competitors but also found a potential customer base.
There is also a tactic that many businesses often use to “steal” customers: moving to the old office of a competitor. A dental clinic decided to rent the old office of a stronger competitor who had just moved to another location. Of course, the old phone number of this competitor was still kept in the yellow pages or phone lookup service center. The “new soldier” did not need to change the service advertising sign in front of the building. And so, many customers of the “old owner” when coming to get dental treatment still did not notice the difference between the old owner and the new owner.
“There are no absolutely loyal customers, no eternal motivations, no eternal love – said a consultant – And therefore, any customer of my competitor can become my potential customer”.
There are three ways to “capture” your competitor’s customers. The first way – the most insolent way: collect the spoils of war right on the opponent’s battlefield. The second way – contact customers directly and flirt, pulling them into an “affair”. The last method – the most vulgar: “capture” your competitor’s employees to “fish” for the customers they attract.
“Catch” your opponent's customers right on the spot
In general, everyone knows that customers are valuable assets of any company regardless of whether the company will sell him airplanes or dog food. But this source of customers is not always abundant. In the era of fierce competition, businesses must always find ways to conquer new customers, especially customers from competitors. They launch the most attractive tricks: cheap prices, good service, convenient locations, gifts... This is applied by many businesses to attract new customers, however, it can also have a negative impact on the reputation and prestige of the company.
For example, one fine day, at a bank branch, many “strangers” suddenly appeared, holding flyers and smiling, greeting customers. It turned out that these were “warriors” from another bank who wanted to “capture prisoners” right on the “enemy’s” battlefield.
Experts say that this trick is quite popular and is often applied by retailers. For example, next to a supermarket, customers can see a huge billboard of this supermarket's competitor. The owner of the billboard wants to "hit" the subconscious of the competitor's customers with impressive images with the goal of attracting as many customers as possible to his supermarket.
In America, casinos are always surrounded by colorful flashing billboards of other casinos. Simply because when they lose and walk out of this “unlucky” casino, gamblers can see the names of other casinos right in front of their eyes. “Let’s try playing over there, maybe my luck will be good there too”. So the goal is achieved, the desire of the “conqueror” has become a reality.
Tips to "capture" your competitors' customers
Competitor analysis
- Why do customers do business with your competitors and not you? What advantages do your competitors have (cheaper prices, better service, more generous gift schemes, etc.)? Try holding conversations with your competitors’ customers (or conducting test groups) to gather information.
- Assess your competitors’ likely reactions to your “customer capture” campaign. If your competitors have too many resources, don’t waste your money on this. However, if your moves anger your competitors, you risk damaging your company’s reputation and honor, and even losing your loyal customers.
Market Analysis
- Evaluate the potential synergies that may arise with competing clients when the “campaign” is underway. Mistakes can be damaging to a company’s reputation and goodwill.
- Evaluate the reactions of other “players” to your “campaign”. Don’t be subjective, you may be blocked by them in your “campaign”.
Analyze your resources
- Cooperating with customers “captured” from your competitors requires a lot of effort and is not a game of chance. Therefore, you must carefully analyze your resources, how to organize, approach, “take down” them appropriately, how to retain them…
Flirting and seducing customers into "adultery"
Direct contact with a competitor’s client is a common tactic: by phone, by mail, or in a meeting. One insurance company lost a client when a competitor attacked. The competitor learned that the client’s current policy with the insurance company was about to expire, and so a carefully planned “attack” campaign was launched. Small holiday gifts and deliberate lunches paid off.
In the field of telecommunications services, businesses also have many tricks. Viettel, with its massive promotion campaign, has gained countless customers who intended to "stick with" Vinaphone or Mobiphone. There was a time when Viettel appeared continuously in the press with a dizzying increase in the number of customers. However, along with the growth in revenue and customers, there were complaints from customers: weak signal, inadequate service...
There is also an interesting case where a Swiss advertising agency successfully “hunted” a big client – the giant McDonald’s – with its creativity. The agency’s advertising experts got the phone number and fax number of a McDonald’s leader. They decided to put up a billboard on the route from the “target”’s house to the company with the content “Why do you need to cooperate with us?” When arriving at the office, this top manager saw the answer to that question right on his fax machine, and each answer was accompanied by very convincing arguments. McDonald’s became a client of the advertising agency in this way.
“Capture” customers by “hunting” employees of rival companies
This is the most strongly condemned issue, but it is also the most widely applied by many businesses, and it reminds us of the story of “spies” in the manufacturing sector. One day, a beautiful “spy” from a rival company was planted in the staff of a certain company. After two months, the girl had all the information about the company’s sales staff: what their salaries were, who was responsible for which customer segment, and the most important thing – who among them was dissatisfied and wanted to change jobs.
It wasn’t hard for the girl to find her main “hunting target”: a 32-year-old employee with 8 years of experience and a “huge” customer database who was looking to leave. So the girl launched a bombardment: dates, chats, sympathy for talented employees like him not receiving good treatment from the company, light lunches. “Oh, I know, company X is looking for someone just like you. High salary, guaranteed to be extremely attractive for you, bonus policy is equally attractive, and there are many other great things that I just told you about through acquaintances. You should try meeting them. The boss there is a friend of my brother. I’ll schedule a date for you, just like our lunch, just take it easy, you should try meeting them and you’ll know.” That’s it. The following week, the guy was at the new company with a more attractive position and salary. What he didn’t know was that his price would be much higher if you consider that 70% the old company’s revenue came from the majority of the clients he managed. Not only did the new company have an experienced employee, but it also “stole” a source of customers that they couldn’t even dream of finding in the fastest way.
Last October, Citibank filed a lawsuit against its former employees in Singapore. These employees were responsible for taking care of wealthy VIP clients (private banking), and when they moved to UBS, they took their wealthy clients with them. It is unclear whether UBS was the ringleader of this scheme or not, but Citibank still decided to sue the three former employees. They asserted that, with the departure of these three employees, they lost 20 VIP clients, with a loss of 50 million Singapore dollars (32 million US dollars). According to experts, Citibank's lawsuit against its employees is also aimed at limiting the risks that may occur when employees defect to work for competitors and at the same time deterring employees who "plot" to cooperate with competitors (remember that the bonus that UBS offers to "deserters" from Citibank is 60% higher than the level Citibank pays).
All of this shows that while businesses may use price cuts, customer hunting, advertising wars or human resource wars to gain traction, these tactics can fail if the competitor has a strong brand in the marketplace. Therefore, the brand lesson is always new.
According to bwportal
