So what’s your USP?

[Phill Fenton]

That’s a good question. Since most sign companies offer pretty much the same type of service, I think it is difficult to come up with a unique selling point (unless you’re Karl and sell phone line sex as well 😉 ).

I suppose we try and do what everyone else does but try to do it better than everyone else.

Having a small industrial unit means we can work on customer vehicles indoors which shop or home based competitors can’t do. That’s a selling point as far as I’m concerned but we’re not unique in that respect.

As far as "tag lines" are concerned, ours used to be:-

"continuously striving to improve the quality of our customers"

but one or two customers felt they were being slighted by this so we had to drop it 😕

[John Childs]

Service.

There’s hundreds of you out there that can do what we do. The only way we can lift ourselves above the herd is by giving better service.

The problem is that service is a difficult concept to use as a selling point because how does a customer faced with six potential suppliers, all professing to offer better service than the others, pick the wheat from the chaff? The truth is that he can’t and he will make mistakes and choose one of you lot as a supplier rather than me.

However, the customers that can recognise and appreciate good service, once they find it, will keep going back for more. That’s how you build a business – repeat work.

That might not be what you wanted to hear because it is not a quick fix, but it will eventually build up a list of loyal clients who keep coming back for more and form the backbone of a good business which will give you a good living for many years to come, and then leave your company as a saleable product in it’s own right when you want to retire.

Strap lines? We don’t use one. They’re all self-satisfied bo11ocks.

[Craig Bond]

‘For all your sign requirements’ is the one I use. Yes, a bit lame maybe but it seems to work. My Yellow Pages advert has the line ‘ Selby’s Local sign Maker’ this is with a local number (no 0800 bollocks as this seemed to stop people calling as they didn’t know where I was situated) .

[Craig Bond]

PS. As John says above..Repeat Business is better than a strap line. Do a good job then word of mouth goes around which means new business and repeat business

[Stephen Morriss]

As John said Service, which means word of mouth and repeat business.
Strap lines are bo11ocks so forget them. spend the time on you existing customers instead.

Steve

[Chris Dowd]

We’re only using a strap line this year "Sixty years of service". now that’s what you call a USP 😀

[Dave Bruce]

quality, quality and quality, gets them coming back every time, that’s why I am busy and my competitors aren’t. I am a relative new company in comparison to them, I am more expensive, but due to the personal service and quality that I offer, I am thriving.

Developed a strap line after comments from early customers "exceeding expectations"

Cheers

Dave

[Graeme Harrold]

Got these off my wife who is a marketing guru, and if you want to create a USP these should point you in the right direction.

I like many others use word of mouth, but occasionally throw in "Quality through experience"

Hope they help someone………

Just seen I cant post in this thread, so Ill put them in the file swapping forum

http://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?p=222713#222713

[Shane Drew]

my byline is ‘signs and designs by mouse… not brush’

Only to indicate I’m ‘digital’ not ‘traditional’

That’s why my logo is a mouse too. Gets people thinking, and has actually got me business, because, like it or hate it, people remember it 😕 which is the primary purpose of a byline anyway.

As John says, unless you give a quality service, any byline will mean nothing in the long run.

[Alan Drury]

I don’t know what my USP is only that I’ve always been busy this last 30 odd years. When I started with computers I had a strap line of "Retaining the skills, using the technology"
Alan D

[Karl Williams]

I use "We create the image. You do the business."