KEYS TO BUILDING CUSTOMER TRUST FOR YOUR NEW BUSINESS

As a new business owner, one of your most immediate goals may be expanding awareness of your product or service. Advertising and marketing initiatives can help in this regard, but even the best promotion may not secure the loyalty of a customer who is hesitant about trusting your company. Building consumer trust is a challenge for any new business, and it is a process that requires deliberate and consistent action. With each new city that Varsity Tutors has entered, we have found that the three strategies below are excellent ways to begin building customer trust from day one.

1. Do as you promise
One way to ensure that you do as you say you will is to under-promise and over-deliver. This can also help you establish a reputation for fantastic customer service. Remember that first impressions can make a marked difference – both negatively and positively – in how your company is viewed. 78% of consumers, for instance, have backed out of a transaction because of poor customer service. At the same time, 59% of people say they would try a new brand or business if it meant an improved customer service experience. For a new company, this latter statistic represents a tremendous opportunity for growth.

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2. Emphasize transparency
Consider your kitchen pantry. The packaged foods inside it most likely display a list of ingredients and nutritional values. Now think about what the equivalent might be for your product or service. Maybe it is a “What’s in the Box?” description, as in the case for items like flat screen TVs. With one glance, a consumer can see that he or she will be receiving the television, the remote, batteries for the remote, and an HDMI cable when the purchase is made. How can you clarify exactly what your customer will receive with the purchase of your product or service?
Another key area of transparency is the customer testimonial. Sharing what others think about your product or service can help to alleviate concerns like, “I’m the only person buying this item. How do I know that it is reliable and well made?” Certain studies have even shown that customer testimonials exert more influence over lesser-known businesses. In the early days of your company, you can thus expect consumer reviews to have an outsized influence on your sales.

3. Create positive feedback cycles

Systems that double as positive feedback cycles can likewise help you generate customer trust. For example, when your business is the subject of a glowing review, you attract new sales, which lead to fresh reviews, which lead to additional sales, and so on. Look to establish such feedback cycles through social media, press coverage, and word-of-mouth. There are a number of ways to quantify feedback loops. For example, there is the Net Promoter Score (NPS) method that categorizes customers into Promoters, Passives, or Detractors. If you can gain an estimate of the percentage of your customers who are in the Promoters category, you can better align your resources to changing that statistic. You could start with a simple question such as, “would you recommend this product to others? Yes, Maybe, No”. Gathering and analyzing such data, and additional related data, could help you identify feedback cycles to develop.

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