SAD!
For those not living in Dubai, let me tell you about the place.
You can always find a barber, grocery store, salon for the ladies and a laundry service at just about every corner.
Not exaggerating.
And all of those are affordable, especially the laundry services.
So if they’re everywhere, what’s the big deal about my local laundry closing down?
Good question.
This laundry service was at the bottom of my building and has been there long before I moved in.
I come from a country where these services are not cheap so we just do things ourselves.
But here, for 2 Dirhams, I can get my shirts ironed. That’s 54 cents in the USA, 44p in the UK and 79c in Australia.
WHAT A STEAL.
Now that they’ve closed down, I have to find an alternative. It’s not far but it’s become INCONVENIENT.
Yes this is lazy. But in an age where we get everything on demand from apps on our phone, it’s just expected.
But there’s a twist to this story.
I get a lot of ‘junk mail’ in the building lobby, mostly for home internet packages and grocery store specials.
But I can’t recall the last time I received something from a competing laundry service (is there a code of honour amongst laundry folks?!)
And that’s exactly what happened.
A competitor pounced on the opportunity to snap up business and they went around to every apartment and left their card on the door handle.
and the best part was there was FREE PICKUP & DELIVERY.
Free delivery is standard but free pickup? not nearly as common.
And I can do this all via WHATSAPP.
SOLD.
So now I have a new laundry service I can communicate with via instant messaging to pickup my laundry.
I no longer have to worry about my local service closing down. Or that I have to walk an extra 5 minutes to find an alternative.
It’s brilliant.
Someone was very smart and saw a chance to allay the fears of the entire building who would no doubt be concerned their local was now closed.
I mean, the ‘for lease’ sign is still drying and these guys are already out there drumming up new business.
GENIUS.
Learn from this.
Not saying you should drown your competition unfairly.
Just keep a look out for who’s out there and what they’re doing.
You could be sneaky and bid on their brand in AdWords (a very touchy area if you’ve been following Twitter lately).
You could make a page on your site comparing your business to the rest.
You could simply just be better than everyone else and do what they aren’t doing.
This applies to SEO. Digital Marketing. Business as a whole. Life in general.
Remember, comfort is a cage.
Never sit still.
You never know when your competition is going to be caught napping at the wheel.
Be ready to pounce at any moment.
Now go get ’em tiger!
