Trusting Business Services

Trust is possibly the most important factor in the corporate-customer relationship.  After all, what is that keeps customer coming back to you?  What is it that makes them want to recommend your products and services to family and friends?  There are a number of big elements to how trust plays a crucial role in the standing and success of your business, and it’s extremely important that you know and practice these key points regularly in order to keep your head above water.

Do I offer the best service I can?

This is perhaps the most important point, and it’s one that should be the very cornerstone of the way that your run your business services.  By listening to your customers, you understand and appreciate what they like about your services, and perhaps what they dislike.  If they dislike your products, why is this?  What can you do to improve?  Is there a correlation in customer feedback?  Vitally, how do you approach customers who have complaints about your business – how do you redress matters, and where can you make extra effort to make your buyers the absolute heart of your campaign?  Treating customers with care, interest and individual, personal support will mean a lot to those who take financial risk with your products – show that you’re listening by continuing to make your service responsive and relevant to their needs.

Am I reliable?

This is a no-brainer, and it ties in nicely with the previous point.  If something goes wrong, or a customer complains, how do I respond?  Am I efficient in my approach?  What do I do to ensure that each and every customer is left feeling that I have satisfied their expectations with my product, and where possible, have I taken extra effort to do so?  It is clear to understand that trust is bred from continued proof of reliability and a sense of responsibility for one’s actions – prove that you have procedures and policies in place to protect consumer needs and clear up any problems that arise as soon as possible.  You will be thanked for it, and your business services will flourish.

Do my customers talk about me?

To breed trust, it’s been proven that more customers will listen to each other when it comes to a product or service as opposed to those who are involved in the business itself.  Advertising can only do so much!  The most powerful way of spreading word of mouth in the current climate is via social media.  While the ‘revolution’ of Facebook and Twitter may be years behind us now, they have become the absolute best platform for you to engage with customers and spread word about your product.  Do you have a social media presence?  Do you interact with customers, showing your reliability and responding efficiently to queries?  Doing so and so publicly will increase your public profile, and word-of-mouth will also come into play here.

Can my customers find me?

Making sure that your online content is optimised for SEO so that searchers can find you easily is absolutely key to your business’ survival on the internet.  By hiding away and not paying attention to SEO, you are not putting yourself forward as a confident and trustworthy organisation, and it is clear time and time again that the vast majority of new customers will never search past Google’s first page of results.  Getting yourself seen with your services and policies out there for all to see is perhaps the first step in cultivating an online identity for the better, alongside a strong social media presence and strategy.

Am I truthful?

This is the bottom line in trusting in business services – are you telling the truth?  This last point is just as important as the others in this list, and you should adhere to it at all times when running a business, particularly online – if you lie about your products and services, or hide behind hyperbole and unfounded copy, you are setting yourself and your business up for an inevitable fall.  Make sure that your products are sound for consumption.  Make sure that you have a complaints resolution process.  If you care about customers, you’ll bare your business from the very start – let them know what they’re buying into and give them the cold, hard facts at the very start of the transaction – you should be making your intentions and practices clear before any money changes hands, or it will end up being damaging both for your customers, and for both your public reputation and business’ success.