While it’s important to offer an excellent service or product, that’s not the most important thing when it comes to building a successful company. No, the most crucial aspect, something that can lead you to success or failure, is your relationship with your customers. If it’s positive, then great. If it’s not, then there’s an issue. A big part of developing a relationship with your customers is having a basis of trust; indeed, without it, there’s only so far you can go. The good news is that there are steps you can to win the trust of your customers. We take a look at a few of them below.
Be Real
You can fool some people some of the time, but you can’t fool all people all of the time. This is worth keeping in mind. If you’re not staying true to yourself, then there’s only so far you can go. So don’t attempt to be anything other than you are; the truth will come out regardless, so it’s better to get off on a good footing. There’s little point promising the world if you can only deliver a small slice of it. It’s also better to let your customers decide whether you’re the best in town, rather than simply telling them and hoping they agree.
Handle Any Issues
You don’t learn whether you can trust a person when things are going perfectly; you learn when there’s a problem. The same goes for your customer’s relationship with you. You’ll be all smile when they’re placing orders and generating revenue, but what are you going to do if something goes wrong? If you’re suddenly taking more time to reply to emails or not doing all you can to ensure they’re happy with the outcome, then any trust that you’ve built will be lost.
Be Consistent
Trust is a fickle thing. It can be there, and then a couple of small issues appear, and it’s put into question. With companies, this usually relates to a lack of consistency. It’s hard to have complete faith in a company if their website is riddled with mistakes or doesn’t have all the latest security keys in place. More broadly, companies need to ensure their company branding is consistent. If you’re not sure if yours is, read a corporate branding definition, and make sure you have all the bases covered. By being consistent, you’re creating an image of reliability in the eyes of your customer.
Build a Reputation
There’s no getting around the fact that whatever industry you’re in, there’s going to be a million other companies offering the, fundamentally, the same thing, especially if you operate online. As such, you need to somehow set yourself apart from the crowd. You need to give would-be customers a reason to trust you, to see you as a cut above the rest. A great way to do this is to establish yourself as an expert in your field, which can you do by writing specialized blogs, tweeting about issues related to your industry, and so on.
