subject: How Do You Build Trust From Your Customers [print this page] Building trust in the business is one difficult task for many big companies; but it is actually something that small businesses have an advantage on. Small businesses can very easily earn respect and confidence from their customer base. In fact, according to a survey made, a whopping 96% of people are actually trusting small businesses more than their larger counterparts. This just shows how effective small businesses are when it comes to getting customers based on trust.
So if you are a small business and just starting out in your industry, here are some easy tricks to help you build trust and confidence from your customers. The amount of trust youll get can provide you with the numbers to increase your profits and boost your business.
First of all, it is a long and difficult road to gain the trust of you clients. It may take a while for you to prove your reliability. But the longer it takes to build trust, the faster you can lose it with dishonesty or even a perceived one at that.
Everything that youve built can crumble in one moment with deceit and duplicity. How do you avoid this? Always be transparent in all your transactions and be clear in all your communications. Be upfront and straightforward with your prices and purchasing policies. Dont trick your customers into paying extra charges, especially those that are not so clear to them. Dont get them to raise questions on your credibility. Veer away from fraudulent transactions that hide additional charges in your deals. The key is to be consistent with your offers. And always be clear on the offers you are extending your customers. The bottom line is to always be honest about everything you have and do in your business and you will always get the trust you deserve from your customers.
Next, always be accountable to your customers by giving your name every time you have your transactions. Most consumers are likely to deal with real people rather than machines. The latter is too impersonal. Having a name to pinpoint the responsibility with can further build the relationship between you and your customers.
This is the difference between small businesses and the big ones. The customers are able to talk with the owners themselves when they deal with the former. For the big companies, more often than not, as a customer, you are directed to a machine and email notices. Rarely do you meet the owners of Fortune 500 companies. A face and a name can add that guarantee that a customer can usually trust. The confidence that a name and a face can answer any concerns they have will more likely result to a purchase from the business.
Also, you need to share your values to your customers to motivate not only your employees, but your customers as well. If you are advocating a cause, make people aware of it in your print media. Have your online printing or conventional printing company produce marketing collaterals that sponsor events for the environment. If your values are part of your marketing strategy, people would be able to empathize and even become involved in your cause; so much so, that they would want to buy from you to help you advocate the same values they also believe in.
Referrals are also great ways to gain trust from your customers. Most people ask their friends, loved ones, and relatives for referrals. If you happen to have a trusty friend refer you to their circle, then you can easily get the trust and confidence from these potential clients.
These are just some of the few things you can do to build trust and confidence in your small business. At the end of the day, how you deal with your customers will be most likely the very thing that would attract them to your business. And the results would be something that would help you stay in business for a very long time.
