Showing how you work, not just what you do, wins comparisons

3 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

Introduction

In most trades and professions the service is the same everywhere. Three electricians will do the same rewiring, three accountants will file the same returns, three cleaners will clean the same offices. Listing what you do therefore differentiates you from nobody, which is why so many small business websites are interchangeable.

What genuinely differs is how it is done: how you survey, how you communicate, how you price, what happens when something unexpected appears, how you leave the site. Buyers care about this a great deal because it is where their actual experience lives, and almost nobody describes it, which makes it available as differentiation at no cost.

1. Showing how you work, not just what you do, differentiates where the service does not

The core argument.

The output is a commodity and the process is not. Two suppliers producing identical work can offer completely different experiences, and buyers know this from having been disappointed before. Most buyers have a story about a supplier whose work was fine and whose conduct was not.

2. Describe the sequence in plain steps

The most useful format.

First we do this, then this, then this, with rough timings and what you need from them. This alone puts you ahead of competitors whose sites describe only outcomes. Six steps is usually enough, and it takes an afternoon to write.

3. Say what happens when something goes wrong

The section buyers read most carefully.

Discoveries, delays, damage, disagreements. Explaining your process for these is more reassuring than any claim about quality, because it addresses what the buyer is actually worried about. Saying that you stop, explain and agree before proceeding answers a fear most competitors leave untouched.

4. Explain how you communicate

An underrated differentiator.

Who they will hear from, how often, by what means, and how quickly you respond. Poor communication is the most common complaint about trades and services, and addressing it directly is unusual enough to stand out.

5. Set out how you price and what changes it

Transparency about method.

Fixed, day rate, measured, staged. What causes a variation and how it is agreed. Buyers who understand the method trust the number, even before they know what it is.

6. Show the parts nobody shows

The credibility of specificity.

Protecting floors, keeping a site tidy, clearing away, the final check. These are unglamorous, they are what customers actually notice, and describing them signals a standard that adjectives cannot.

7. Use photographs of the process, not just the result

The visual version.

Work in progress, protection in place, a tidy site at the end of a day. Finished-result photographs look like everybody else's; process photographs are distinctive and more believable.

8. Let the customer's words describe it

The evidence.

Reviews mentioning punctuality, tidiness, explanation and communication are more valuable than reviews praising the finished job, because they evidence the process rather than the output.

9. Make sure the description is actually true

The requirement.

A published process is a promise, and it will be measured against. If you describe a standard you do not reliably meet, you have created a complaint rather than a differentiator.

Be careful about describing a process so rigid that it cannot flex. Buyers want to know there is a method, not to be told that nothing can be adapted, and over-formalising can read as inflexibility.

Conclusion

Describe how the work happens, because that is where you actually differ from competitors.

Set out the sequence in plain steps with timings, explain what happens when something goes wrong, describe how and how often you will communicate, be open about your pricing method and what changes it, mention the unglamorous details customers notice, show photographs of the process rather than only the result, seek reviews that mention how you worked rather than what you produced, and make sure everything you describe is something you reliably do.