Customer acquisition and retention are the backbones of any successful business. This means that you need to find as many ways as possible to bring in customers through the door (or at least, onto your website). Thankfully, there are various ways to achieve this goal.
By Team Savant
Image: Elisa Ventur
For example, you can grow your customer base through:
Taking time to get to know your target audience
Social media campaigns
Hosting or attending local events
Word-of-mouth marketing
However, in order for all of the above factors (and more) to come into play, you must have a solid reputation. This means you should focus on cultivating a brand that customers know they can trust with their money. Here are some simple ways in which you can increase faith in your business!
Get Accredited
The first step towards building a relationship of trust and faith between your customers and your company is getting accredited and learning the value of standards (i.e the specifications, procedures, and guidelines used to ensure products and services are safe and reliable). By taking these steps, your business will instantly become synonymous with high-sstandards and high levels of consumer trust.
Work On Your Online Presence
Your online presence is sometimes the only tool the customers have to gain an understanding of your business - which means you must make a good first impression by ensuring your website is professional, stylish, and effective. While using templates is a great way to get started, ensure that the overall design and content give a clear impression of your brand and don’t appear too ‘cookie-cutter’. This is due to the fact that customers are less likely to trust your brand if they feel as though you’ve not put the effort into cultivating your online presence.
Work On Your Customer Service
The easiest way to increase faith in your business is simple. You just need to ensure you provide a first-class experience for your customers as this will encourage them to make repeat purchases, or recommend your brand to a friend. Customer service skills come naturally to many entrepreneurs as you're already required to be a people person, but there’s nothing wrong with honing these in order to maximize the benefits of good customer relationships. For example, you can work on making your business more accessible by providing your customers with plenty of methods to contact you such as over the phone, through text, or by email.
Respond To Reviews — Even Bad Ones
While reviews can make or break a business, your response to these reviews is equally important. Responding to positive reviews helps you to further your relationship with your customer, and shows that you value their thoughts and opinions. Equally, responding to negative reviews shows you’re willing to work towards a solution to the problem and are not dismissing your customers who have valid complaints. Ideally, you should aim to respond to the reviews within a reasonable time frame, and provide a clear solution in your response. This will help to diffuse the situation and repair your relationship with your customer.