Recent months have shown us that no business can afford to take its customers for granted, especially in times of crisis. When consumers encounter hard times, their confidence can be shaken. You need to establish yourself as a company that they can trust.
A brand that they can rely on to get them through the difficult times and provide them with a sense of normality and continuity when their world seems like it’s been turned upside down. Customer trust is extremely important in both fair times and foul. Earn it and consumers will choose you at the expense of your competitors time and time again. But at a time when consumers have more choice than ever and know that they can afford to be fickle, trust in your consumers can be hard-won.
It’s not a campaign that can be won overnight. It’s a battle that needs to be fought on multiple fronts at once. Get it right, however, and you’ll get the kind of customer loyalty that earns you loyal and vocal brand advocates, as well as the repeat business and referrals that can help you grow your business and accomplish your goals faster. Here are a few ways in which you can earn customer trust.
Build relationships with quality suppliers
You have extremely high standards of yourself and your team. You want to provide excellence in every aspect of your customers’ journey from the products you supply to the aftercare your customers receive.
However, that same insistence on quality needs to be reflected across every link in your supply chain. Which means you need to build good relationships with quality suppliers.
Whether your suppliers provide you with high-quality reliable Tension Springs for the products you manufacture or fresh fruit and vegetables for your cafe, you can’t build a strong structure on a wobbly foundation. And your components are your foundation.
Use your blog as a platform for thought leadership
Trust isn’t just earned by the quality of the products or services you provide. It’s also earned by your experience, expertise and knowledge as a business leader. These are the qualities that only you, and none of your competitors, can provide.
So make sure you’re sharing them with the world. Blogging, vlogging, white papers, infographics, tutorials and other forms of high quality content can help customers to see you as a thought leader. Someone in whose expertise they can trust.
Respond promptly on social media
With almost 4 billion active social media users logging on every day, there’s a good chance that at many of your customers use social platforms regularly. And that means that you not only need to be marketing on the platforms that matter to them, you also need to be responsive to their needs.
Respond quickly and decisively to their comments, queries and even their complaints on social media. Unless you take fast and decisive steps to resolve their issues online, you’re setting a bad precedent for all to see.
Show that you are committed to ethics as well as profits
Finally, many consumers (especially those of the millennial generation) value a strong ethical focus in the brands they buy from. They care about sustainability and an ethical supply chain, and they’re prepared to pay for the privilege. So make sure you and your suppliers put fair pay, good conditions and sustainability at the top of your priorities.
DISCLOSURE – This post has been written by an outside source.
