Sustaining a successful business is all about building a lasting relationship with your clients. A company cannot survive on walk-in customers but repeat and faithful clients who also refer their friends. To make sure your customers keep choosing you over your competitors, you have to understand their needs, build relationships with them, and solve issues fast and amicably. Most clients will not tell you when they are dissatisfied but will walk away. Here is a list of things that can hurt your business reputation.
Not Having a Quality Website
In this age, everyone wants convenient, fast and dependable services. The first place your clients check when they need information is your website. Is it up to date? But first things first. Do you have a website? Your clients will not understand why you don’t have one and if you do, make sure it’s information-packed, easy to use and dependable. Ensure you have a reliable web design expert to help you keep the site updated, helpful and functional.
Understand that 85% of customers conduct an online search first, even when they intend to buy a product from a physical store. When you don’t give potential clients what they want, they move on to the next available site.
Not Meeting Customer Needs on Time
As stated earlier, many customers are looking for convenient and fast services. They don’t want to wait for days for queries to be addressed or a shipment to be made. If you take longer than necessary to reply to messages, return calls or take care of customer requests, you’ll lose your credibility. Get a system that notifies you when customers message you and reply before the end of the same business day.
Another turn-off, or disappointment to customers, is when their goods take too long to be delivered. If you are running an online store, have all mechanisms in place to enable you to process orders fast. Also, don’t sell anything that is out of stock.
Not Resolving Issues
Did a particular client complain about your services? What did you do about it? It’s easy to sweep everything under the carpet and continue with the business but remember that one disgruntled customer can walk away with ten others. Even when you feel the customer is unreasonable, don’t leave things hanging. Look for ways to solve the situation in a calm and understanding manner.
If a disgruntled customer leaves a negative review, this can significantly affect your business. Misunderstandings will occur but learn how to solve them even when you have to go out of your way to do it. Having many negative reviews can bring your business down.
Not Offering Quality Products
The number one reason customers look for you is that they trust your products and services. When you breach this trust by offering substandard products, you’ll ruin your reputation and relationship with the clients. Ensure you provide quality products consistently. You’d rather put the price a little higher than your competitors but make sure you don’t compromise on quality.
Keep on checking the areas you need to improve to build a good reputation with your clients. If possible, ask your clients what they’d like to see improved or changed and work on it.
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