Compete on High-Touch
Compete on High-Touch
In the past few years, I’ve been “consulting” with my cousin about how he could compete in the Massage Business. Massage Envy is the walmart of massage places. They’re on every corner in Omaha and compete at the lowest price spectrum. And that’s the best part - they don’t have passion or a niche. They’ll do whatever you want, but they’ll do it half ass. When you serve everybody, you serve nobody.
Right off the bat, we recognized this as a weakness. But how could we capitalize? By establishing a niche and raising prices. The Muscle Medics became the place for Pain Relief and the price per hour was \$15 more than Massage Envy. And guess what? It worked. My cousin had a reputation of passion in the industry and it floated his clientele all the way to the top. He garnered referral after referral by specifying his service and drawing a line in the sand against cookie-cutter massages.
That is what you have to do to compete. You go high-touch. That means that you interact with every customer as the owner and make sure that they know what you’re about. One, people will appreciate the personal service. And two, people will associate a persona with your business.
Unlike Massage Envy, you will have a face. Someone they know who they can talk to if things go wrong. At larger businesses, there is no defined head. That makes people weary. How can they trust an establishment if they don’t know who is running it? When you first start out, this is the point to compete on. You interact with every customer so they feel your “touch” and know your brand. They get what you stand for and where you draw the line. At Brewsky’s Lincoln, I don’t know where the owner draws the line. But at Randy’s Grill & Chill, I know Randy, and I know what he does and doesn’t stand for.
So embrace the small startup atmosphere and stand for something. Compete on personal touch and not price. By doing this, you will establish your brand and stand out from the crowd.
-Brian Lambelet
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-JP