It is necessary to do a competitor analysis. Because you may use their data to define your goals, marketing plans, tactics, new product lines, pricing, and more. Use competitor analysis to:
- Identify the strength and weakness of your home inspection business competitors.
- Search for opportunities to distinguish your home inspection business from competitors.
The first step is to determine who your direct and indirect competitors are.
The direct competitors consists of other home inspection businesses that offer essentially the same services to the same people as you do.
Your competition in the home inspection industry starts with other home inspectors. People work with the home inspection contractors they have already worked with. A part of your customers will be the people switching from another home inspector to you. Make your marketing message unique and establish your value. You can start getting business when you can create your competitive advantage.
The areas where you can create a competitive advantage include innovation, speed, quality, experience in the industry, etc.
Make a policy of seeking testimonials from your customers and collecting feedback so that you can show them as proof of your quality work. These will also help you win more business via your website and social media pages.
For home inspection companies, most of the business comes from websites like Realtors, their website, real estate agent referrals, and past customers. Home inspection is a people business; focus on giving the best user experience to get referrals from your past customers.
Once you’ve identified the competition, concentrate on the direct, head-to-head competitors, since they are the most threatening to your home inspection business— but keep an eye on the indirect competition as well, just in case.
Provide an overview of each direct competitor’s business and detail their strengths and weaknesses.
You will be able to position yourself competitively in the market if you perform proper competition research. Perform a SWOT Analysis to learn your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and competitive advantages in the following areas:
- Prices – Are they offering cheaper home inspection servics or more costly than you and other competitors, what value do buyers get for that price?
- Quality – Are they offering premium home inspection services, the perceived worth in the eyes of the customers
- Customer service – How they respond to their consumers, whether they treat them poorly or well, and the degrees of satisfaction customers show
- Reputation — The sum of everything mentioned above: their credibility, how loved the brand is, and the loyalty of their customers
The final section of your competitive analysis should include a list of your areas of competitive advantage. for example: Are you going to offer premium home inspection services? Do you offer unique home inspection services that your competitors do not? Will you offer better pricing or will you offer greater customer support?
Consider how you will outperform your competitors and include them in this portion of your home inspection business plan.