I recently saw international shipper DHL‘s commercial on TV. The piece ended with the announcer stating:
Bringing customer service back to shipping.
Those last words stuck in my mind and left me thinking: “what did they mean by that?”
I immediately remembered all the bad experiences I’ve had with DHL’s competition. Foremost of these has been the United States Postal Service.
This is exactly what DHL wanted me to think. Brilliant! The natural next course of action would be for me to say: “Oh yeah, I did have a bad experience with UPS/Fedex/USPS. Maybe I’ll try DHL next time.”
Overt Jabs
You can indirectly attack your competition by making them look bad. You don’t even have to mention names. By alluding to problems of customer service, DHL let the customer draw the natural conclusions. Can you do the same in your industry?
Customer Realization
Customers are more likely to act upon conclusions that they make than ones you force feed them. Lead your potential customer down the path but let them take the final step. Make it so easy and natural that they have no choice but to choose the conclusion you want.