Advice for a starting small business
Make it easy for customers to find you
Are you trustworthy? When dealing with a starting small business, this is the $64,000 question your (potential) customers ask themselves. Without trust, it is unlikely that they will do business with you, so you’d better take care of this.
- Integrity: They’ve done business with you before, and their trust was not shamed
- Responsiveness: Information requests are answered promptly (= within 24 hours, 12 hours is better) by a real, live person, not an automatic mail responder
- Recovery: Problems are dealt with swiftly, with a favourable and positive outcome. For instance, a faulty product could be easily returned and is replaced quickly.
- Connection: A great number of customers like call the company on the phone, so they can talk to a live person
- Physical presence: Your online presence is for a brick-and-mortar company they know and trust. In absence, they must be able to find a real address where you reside.
The first sign is clear: shame the trust of your customer, and you can kiss him goodbye.
However, a lot of customers won’t even do business with a starting small business if they’re unable to check out signs 2 through 5. In order to enable them, you will have to give them easy access to your company.
Make sure that your website has a page that can be reached from every page in your site, with the following contact information:
- E-mail addresses for requesting information, asking questions, and reporting problems
- Postal address where you can be reached by mail
- Telephone number(s) where you can be reached
From your order page, make it easy for your customers to find information on returning products or getting a refund if a product is faulty.
If you are able to put a name, a face, or a voice to your site in the mind of the customer, they are much more likely to trust it. Even if you are just beginning!
Top of Tips for a starting small business
