by Joseph Chung
When you have your own business or are high up on the employee ladder, it can feel like the entire fate of the company rests on your shoulders, and this can cause a lot of stress, both physically and emotionally. While it may seem like you’ve tried everything that you can possibly can to try and save your business, there are always new methods and tips that you can try out that might just work for you and help to pull your company out of the danger zone.
Improve Customer Relations
A great way to build a good relationship with your customers is to establish a strong sense of trust between your business and your consumers. Many businesses are quite secretive with the way that they manage and operate, meaning that customers are often left in the dark and don’t know what happens behind the scenes, or if they’re purchasing goods or services that are ethically sourced and created. Giving your customers a brief bit of information on how the products are made or what goes on behind the scenes of your business can build a great sense of trust, as the customer will feel like they know exactly what they are purchasing without any secrets being kept.
Another effective way of building a relationship with your customers is by updating them regularly through digital newsletters delivered directly to their email inbox. While this is one of the best ways of improving your customer relations, it can be incredibly difficult to do if you haven’t ever made a digital newsletter before. Luckily there are plenty of html templates from resources like Sendinblue that are available for free download and can make a wonderfully well-put-together newsletter to let your customers know what’s been happening in your business.
Market Effectively
One of the best ways to gain more customers is by advertising, and while that is not brand-new information, plenty of businesses go about marketing the wrong way, and can often spend more money on advertising than they get from new customers. As most of the US has transitioned to the internet to find their information, with only 10% of the US adult population stating that they don’t go online, marketing online will be far more effective than marketing through traditional media like television and newspapers.
The best way to market online and get more customers is by using social media platforms like Facebook. All you have to do is make a business page and ensure that you share the link with your existing customers through email or on your website. The reasons why Facebook is one of the best social media sites to advertise your business on is because of the sharing and rating functions that it allows its users to take advantage of. If you get 5-star ratings from some of your existing customers and they share your business page to their personal profile, all of their friends will see that there is a wonderful company out there that has been given a 5-star recommendation by someone that they know and trust. And the best thing about social media marketing? It’s mainly free!
Listen to Feedback
Possibly the most important piece of advice on this list is to make sure that you listen to what your customers are telling you that they liked or disliked about your products or services. By listening to customer feedback, you find out what your strengths and weaknesses are and build upon these to become a better business. As well as this, by listening to your customers and actively applying corrections or suggestions that they have mentioned they would like to see from your company, you let them know that you are a company who cares about its consumers, and aren’t in the business simply to make money.
If you’re desperate for a customer increase, you can even research into feedback of your competitors and find out what it is that their customers aren’t liking so much, and then you can make sure that you offer what your rivals do not. Promoting services that customers of other companies are asking for means that you can not only gain customers, but also do some damage to your rivals and prove to the consumer that you are the better company.
It’s impossible for your business to succeed and thrive without your customers, as they are the way that you make money and keep your company on top of its game, so when you’re running low on customers, it can be a little frightening. Don’t worry if you’re not making as much profit as you need to however, as there are plenty of business savvy methods that you can employ to make sure that you gain as many customers as possible, and keep them by your side as you prove that you are a company who cares.