4 Steps to Conducting Competitor Research

Carrying out competitor analysis is invaluable to the long-term development of your business. Benchmarking your business against your competitors will allow you to see what your strengths are over your competition, but also highlight any gaps in your offering that you might want to explore.

Detailed below are 4 steps to support with your competitor research:

Customer Effort Score

1. Identify your main competitors

Make a list of the main competitors operating within your market space. When we say main competitors, we don’t mean all of them. Not every company operating within your industry and offering the same services as you, are going to be a main competitor. Identify 3 to 5 competitors who are well known within your space and who potential customers are likely to contact or compare your services to.

2. Establish what information you want to benchmark

Once you have decided which companies to include in your competitor analysis, the next step is to establish what you want to benchmark yourselves against. Whether it’s a price comparison exercise, measuring their customer journey or customer service levels, establish exactly what you want to achieve from the competitor research.

3. Decide how you would like the research to be carried out

When you have decided what information you would like to benchmark, you can decide how you would like the research to be carried out. The most common methods for competitor research are desk research or mystery shopping. Desk research is typically used to compare pricing points or the online customer journey, whilst mystery shopping is used to measure the customer journey and customer services levels via phone or face-2-face.

4. Select the right research agency for you

Lastly, find a research partner who has experience conducting competitor research. Using a research agency for your competitor analysis allows you to access their experience and expertise as well as a non-biased view of the research.

At My View Research we have carried out competitor research for a number of well-known brands including Sky Mobile, Lok’nStore, LavAzza, Volkswagen Passenger Cars and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.

Speak to one of our Research Consultants to find out how we can create a bespoke competitor research programme for your business.

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