Keeping the Trust Between You and Your Customers

There are, of course, companies out there who quite obviously do not care about their customers. They’re in the game to make a quick buck, not to deliver anything of value. They’ll have shady practices, they’ll be hard to reach when something goes wrong, they’ll disappear into the abyss once they’ve received too many complaints. For any company that respects itself, this is not the right approach. For longevity, you need to build trust with your customers, and then work hard to keep it. Below, we take a look at how you can do this.

Know Your Stuff

When a customer gives their business to a company, they’re doing more than simply making the most of whatever services or products that they offer. They’re trusting that they’re getting the best of the best. People can’t be expected to know everything about everything. If they’re going to buy a car, for example, then they need to trust that what the salesperson is telling them is correct. To show that you’re an expert, style yourself as a leader in your industry. A blog, podcasts, and commentary about your field will show this. When a customer needs someone who knows what they’re talking about, they’ll only turn to you.

Long Lasting Goods

People will be happy if they receive a product and it works as well as — or better than — they hoped. But that happiness will quickly give way to annoyance and anger if the product stops working before it should. It doesn’t matter how good or useful a product might be; if it stops working within months and has to be thrown away, then the good opinion they had of your company will be lost. This is especially true of physical (hardware) products. To ensure yours don’t die prematurely, look at working with electroplating machine manufacturers to better protect the insides from corrosion. Never underestimate how important not having to replace goods every six months is to your customers!

Finding Solutions

Of course, things will go wrong from time to time. Even if you have a robust manufacturing process or services, there’s always a chance that mistakes happen. The measure of the company isn’t determined by their making a mistake; it’s how they respond to those mistakes. If you’re happy to work out to handle issues and find solutions, then your customer will have little reason to doubt the trust they’ve placed in your company. If, on the other hand, you’re trying to use loopholes — or just plain avoiding their complaints — to get around fixing the problem, then you’ll be effectively asking that customer to walk away.

Look to the Future

Things change. You might offer a great service right now, but we’ve not reached the end of days; things are going to carry on improving. To keep the trust of your customers, you need to show that you care about delivering the best. Always keep one eye on the future and make sure that you’re updating your products, services, and everything else in line with modern standards.

This is a contributed post.