I'm in the international shipping service, so at the end of the day potential customers usually are looking for the "lowest shipping rates", and I'm sure they view my services just as a "commodity" because if they don't like my "shipping rate prices" they can just go to one of my competitors. I don't want to play the "lower my prices" game to beat my competitor's pricing because that will just end up thinning my margins and putting me out of business. I've read some competitor customer reviews online, and I see people had bad experiences with customer service, their items handled poorly, shipping delays, lost packages, etc. So I try to increase my perceived value by stating how we do all these things better and customers won't have these same issues with my services, but maybe it's still not enough because all potential customers care about is the "lowest shipping rates".
As Seth Godin once said "If all your customers care about is price, its probably because you haven't given them anything else to care about!"
Get those numbers on bad handling, shipping delays, lost packages and differentiate yourself from your competitors!
Repackage what it is you do, in the way that Orica stopped selling explosives and started selling a rock removal service.
I don't know how many "shipping lanes" you have: if you have many, surely the level of competition differs. Make your money where there is less competition and be competitive where there is more competition. Look at your T&C's as well - can you make them more attractive to help differentiate yourself, or better align them with your clients business model?
Hope that helps - happy to chat and discuss further
Answered 8 years ago
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