According to a survey by the Concerto Marketing Group and Research Now, 82 percent of customers will regularly use a brand they trust, and 83 percent will recommend that company to others.
Trust will ultimately lead to a successful business. When you say things, it isn’t instantly disregarded as sales talk. And that’s a powerful thing. You won’t build it overnight, but with these three methods, you can boost trust with your customers.
- Be Transparent
The key to boosting trust is to not give customers a reason to distrust you in the first place. The fact is customers are smart and they know when you’re not telling the truth or not telling them the full truth. Why? Because they shop regularly, and they have experienced both the best and the worst of companies doing business.
The key to being transparent is, naturally, don’t lie and give them the full story.
Nevertheless, it goes further than that. It goes further than that because you must go out of your way to allow people to look behind the curtain and see what is behind the scenes. One way of doing this is through things like Instagram videos. Some companies shoot videos of their offices and their teams.
It’s more basic than this, though. Even just having a team page on your website is enough to show people who you are and that you exist.
Finally, make sure you always admit when you are wrong. Don’t try to cover up errors because all it takes is one smart customer to see the truth and there goes your credibility.
To sum this section up, you must:
- Show people how you work day-to-day.
- Be natural. Do things the right way and don’t lie.
- Admit when you’re wrong and do your best to put things right.
- Make the Back-End Stable
Honest companies have fallen flat not because of their principles but because of the employees working with them. They fail because while the owner may have a high level of integrity those working under them don’t. It all comes down to the culture of your company.
Everything about your company should be about putting the customer relationship before anything else, including sales. Develop integrity within your company and make it part of the fabric. It should come into everything you do.
This may require making some tough decisions. For example, it may be necessary to let some people go if they can’t conform to your needs and expectations.
To customers, this isn’t immediately noticeable. While you are not doing something drastic in full view of the public, changes behind the scenes will have a great impact in the long-term.
You can’t gain someone’s trust if you’re not doing it for the right reasons, and that includes everyone pushing in one direction.
- Send them Quality Content
There are many ways to build an email list. One way to do this is to convince them to do it via social media. You can also place lightboxes on your site, but the key is not building the biggest email list you can, it’s about sending out quality content people can relate to.
Swap is one company that has highlighted this, “Only through monitoring open and click rates could we determine what customers really wanted to see. This more than doubled the responsiveness of our email list.”
Nevertheless, sending out quality content is such a generic term that has lost all meaning. Finding out what customers want is a matter of trial and error. How can you do it quickly?
- Start a focus group. Ask a select group of loyal customers what they want to see.
- Monitor the statistics, such as bounce rates, open rates, and click rates.
- Time. Over time, you will soon see what is working and what isn’t. Make sure you are experimenting along the way.
It’s important to make the point that this doesn’t necessarily include the hard sell. The statistics say companies that state, “The customer is always right” will see a customer loyalty. Moreover, customers don’t want to see the hard sell.
Give more than you expect to receive. That is how to create a good customer-company relationship.
Building customer trust always takes time. Those who try to cut corners are bound to fail because customers aren’t stupid. Do things the right way and you will set the foundation for a profitable business.
