Trust.
It’s is the Holy Grail of marketing, especially for small business. Developing a reputation as a company that your customers can trust implicitly must be your goal with every contact, interaction and or transaction with custo
mers and/or potential customers.
Here are three quick tips for building the kind of trust that will build your business:
1. Don’t Go Negative on Competitors
It might seem like trying to making your competitors look bad would be a great thing, but doing so is almost always a huge mistake. It only males you look worse, and could actually drive your potential customers right into their arms.
Rather than bad-mouthing the other guy’s wares, show consumers why your product or service is better. Better yet, get other satisfied customers to toot your horn for you, which would carry even more weight.
Staying away from negativity shows people you are willing to stand on your triumphs rather than the failures of others.
2. Build Partnerships with Customers
Some consider posting to social media an effective way to build relationships with clients. While this does give people a sense of what the company is all about, it is essential to go beyond this and let consumers know that there are real people behind those digital avatars.
One simple way of doing this is addressing comments and questions on social media. Providing meaningful, helpful information is one of the best ways to build trust online.
An additional way to do this, while also showing that you really care, is to respond to online reviews. Yelp once reported that while there are over 18 million businesses in America, only 1.1 million business pages had been claimed on their site. that means that a large percentage of companies are obviously failing to respond to reviews.
3. Be Transparent About Errors
Every small business will make mistakes, both in the offline and online worlds. When these happen, you will need to own up to them. Whether you have a single negative review online or an idiotic server garnered negative media attention for the company, simply make sure you recognize the mistake and explain what is being done to make sure it never happens again.
Building trust is important in any relationship, but especially crucial for small businesses. Set aside some quality time today — a regularly in the future — to think strategically about how you can build more trust.