Last Updated on May 26, 2019 by Jessica Adams

As a business owner, you already know that your customer base is the most important group of people to your business’s success. And part of cementing that success is to establish trust between your company and customers. This can have tremendous long-term benefits – to you and them – but won’t come naturally. Customers have plenty of options, no matter what they’re buying, and tend to have an initially skeptical outlook on “big business” – whether you’re a big or small company. Trust won’t just be given, it has to be earned. But how exactly can you gain their trust? We take a look at a few ways to build trust with your customer base, below.

 

How to Build Trust With

Your Customer Base

 

 

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Be Completely Transparent

They say that once you’ve built a relationship, the hard work is done – if you keep treating them with respect and deliver good service, then the customer-cycle will naturally progress until completion. But this isn’t true. There’s one surefire way to have your customers rethinking the relationship, and maybe walking away forever: doing something that’s underhand. It pays to be transparent, upfront about your services and costs. If you agree to perform a task for a customer, only to later add on a “service charge” for paying by card, some of the trust you’ve built will be eroded. You can bill a “hidden” charge once, but only once – because they won’t be back again.

 

Always Be Reliable

Trust is a difficult concept, but attaining it can be simplified. You just need to be reliable. That means being there when your customer needs you, delivering the goods or service as promised, and all-around being consistent. This means picking up the phone when it rings. It means working with a company that offers technology management and IT solutions so that your website is always up and running. People might generally want to do business with you, but will be put off if they can’t be sure that you’re going to be consistent in your output.

 

Show Off Your Credentials

If you’ve established yourself as a trustworthy, honest company, then get the word out! Point your future customers to reviews by your existing happy customers. You can show them on your website, or have a like to your TrustPilot and other review pages. You can request these reviews from your customers by asking them to leave a review as part of your after sales care. If you’ve done an awesome job, then there’ll be happy to leave one!

 

Address Problems, Head On!

Everyone makes mistakes. You are going to make them with your customers or clients, there’s no getting around that. The trick is, don’t worry about what took place. Worry about your response to the situation. People trust those who accept and rectify their mistakes!

 

Treat Everyone With The Same Respect 

You can judge a human being not by how they address a King, but how they address a person living on the street. The same can be applied to companies too. If you’re bending over backward to please your big spending customers, but ignoring the ones who just need small work, then you’ll show yourself to care more about money than their satisfaction. And you can’t trust someone whose main motivation is money…!

 

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This has been a guest contribution from Candice Grant, in the Small Biz “Mini-Post” Series. 1K words or less & open for Guest Posting!

 

Edited by Jessica Rose Adams