Imitation is the highest form of flattery, or so we’re all told. But no one really likes copycats – especially in business. Find out then why we’re not fussed.
We’ve been around for a while now (we’ll be celebrating our 5th birthday in October) and in this time we’ve dealt with our fair share of copycat quotes sites.
For the most part we are too busy improving ServiceSeeking.com.au to be bothered by these imitations (and honestly they’ve normally folded by the time we’ve even heard of them) but occasionally we let them get under our skin. It’s usually when we see that they’ve blatantly ripped off our copy or functionality. Stuff that we’ve conjured up, engineered and worked hard to perfect. It’s frustrating.
But we know that a successful business relies on so much more than these “elements.” It’s all about building a community – something that these clone sites know little about. Thankfully we have a healthy pool of loyal businesses and customers who we value, and who value us. I think our Facebook page tells this story best.
We had a discussion in the office today about whether these copycat sites help or hinder us. The half glass full perspective is that they actually help us spread the word about our unique concept. They’re getting customers comfortable with the idea of sourcing quotes for their renovations and other services online. People will hopefully just remember the concept and not the business name.
This is great in theory, but from what we’ve been told (and of course tested ourselves!) customers typically have a poor experience with these other sites.
While ServiceSeeking.com.au customers receive an average of 3.7 quotes; when people post jobs on inferior imitation sites they often don’t hear back from anyone. This gives everyone a bad name. People don’t realise that it’s the particular business that’s failed them, and not the concept.
The only way around this is to make sure they find us first! Which brings me back to my first comments…we’ll just continue to do our thing. And make sure we’re doing it the best.
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