Do your customers trust you?

Trust is a huge thing in business.

Mainly because people do business with people, and not companies.
Have you ever had a bad experience with someone at a company and vowed to never do business with them again?

Yep, me too.

So that means we have to do everything we can to make sure our customers trust us (our company!).
Are you doing everything you can?

Every week I see news reports about how people don't trust businesses anymore.  Whether that's true or not, there's steps you can take to make sure your business isn't the one they don't trust. So here are seven quick tips you can use to help your business.

1. Go the extra mile. Under promise and over deliver.  It's a time worn concept, but it works every single time. Be there for your customers. Show them how reliable you are. Remember it's your actions that count, not your words.
   
2. Provide spectacular customer service every single time. To make sure you are doing that, have a friend or colleague visit your business like a secret shopper and give your feedback on what their experience is.
3. Make sure your front and back office work like a well-oiled machine. You want to make sure that your front office employees and your back office employees are telling your customer the same thing.
4. Manage your customer relationships. Return customers cost you the least amount of effort. Use that to your advantage.
5. Communicate, communicate with your customer and employees. Nurture those relationships and ask for feedback.
6. Take responsibility. Don't pass the buck. If you can't personally handle a customer issue, make sure you pass it off gracefully to someone who can.
7. Meet commitments. Commitments guarantee that something's going to get done and you need to manage the customer's expectations. Make commitments that you can keep and that will help you build trust. Missed commitments break down trust and once trust is broken, forget it. It's hard to get it back again.
   

So there you go. Do your customers trust your business? What tactics do you use to make sure? If you know a small business owner who could use this post please share it with them.

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