Five ways to earn your clients’ trust

How do we stand out as a business owner in today's ever changing world? Earning the trust of your potential clients is critical in establishing a good reputation for your company.

Here are 5 quick and easy ways to earn your clients’ trust:

 Respect their time 
This is a biggie. Realize that your clients’ time is precious, and don’t take up too much of it. This means promptly returning calls and replying to emails, holding fast to estimated call times, and logging on to virtual conferences a few minutes early. Be prepared and make sure you are ready to answer any potential questions. These small gestures go a long way.

Conform to their schedules 
Ask what times are convenient for your clients to talk on the phone. Take their busy schedules into consideration and give them several options when planning meetings or conference calls. Let them take the lead, defer to them and concede more to their instance.

Keep your commitments 
In most circumstances, you will need to keep your clients in the loop while you are doing projects for them. Give them frequent progress updates and make it clear exactly what assistance and input you will need from them. Help them to help you!

Feel their potential fears 
Does your client have any fears or hesitations about the project at hand? Is there any part of the process that you can make easier? It might be as simple as formatting some data. Be sensitive to your clients’ concerns and they will appreciate you even more.

Deliver the unexpected 
Give your clients more than what they expect. For example, don’t just provide your services, show them what you do. Make it a learning experience! Pay attention to your clients’ particular needs and interests so they get the most out of their experience with you. And provide value-added service where you can, without asking for extra compensation.

Written by Robin Richter. Corporate, Event, Trade Show & Golf Tournament Promotional Products: Creative Strategies to Get Your Business Noticed!

Edited by ‘Dele Dele-Olukoju, Marketing Communication strategist, and publisher of the online Marketing Communication Digest. He writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Six Pillars of Customer Service

Image
According to Belding , global leaders in Customer Service Training and Workplace Performance, the behaviour that creates outstanding Customer Service fall into six categories, referred to as the Six Pillars of Customer Service.    Attitude Being caring; solution-driven; having empathy; being positive; being friendly and cheerful; having energy; being on-stage are parts of the hallmark of attitude. Attitude is the cornerstone of outstanding customer service, and contrary to popular belief, you can influence it. Interest Being 100% customer-focused; asking questions; listening; and personalizing the relationship exhibit interest.  All of our actions need to convey to a customer that they are important to us. The research tells us that over 80% of service failures come from the perception that ‘you just don't care’. Action Action is about taking ownership, solving problems, being creative, following through, and following up. When customers see you being proacti
Read more

Understanding the buyer's journey

Image
Just stop interrupting! Now, would you ask someone to marry you on the first date? Nollywood romance stories sometime portray such successful ‘love at first sight’ scenarios. But we know it’s never that simple in real life. Reality normally requires building a relationship before popping the question; earning trust, learning to know one another, seeing that you are right for each other and taking the relationship to the next level when you're ready. If this makes sense to you so far, then why are you selling, or trying to sell to strangers on your first date with them? So what's the buyer's journey? Simply, “the buyer’s journey is the active research process a potential buyer goes through leading up to a purchase." There are three stages to the average buyer's journey : the Awareness stage; the Consideration Stage; and the Decision Stage. Awareness: The awareness stage represents the top of the marketing funnel (TOFU). For example, the
Read more

Conversational Marketing, a new paradigm for brands

Image
A brand new world, the rise of Millennials There’s one recurring obsession that keeps haunting almost every marketing and ad agency executive. It’s in nearly every Powerpoint deck and on every marketer’s mind… Millennials: that so documented and ubiquitous M Word! For many years, most marketers (and their agencies) relied on the same old recipe. Write a tagline. Make a TV spot. And plaster it everywhere you can, all in the name of “Integrated Marketing”. Brand awareness and reach were the only metrics that mattered. Problem is, the recipe started to turn sour. It wouldn’t stick anymore, especially with new demographics: The Young People (which we decided to call “Millennials” to make them even more mysterious and fascinating). Combined with the digital revolution, the rise of Millennials has become hell of a puzzle that many CEOs are still struggling to solve. As a result, Chief Marketing Officers are losing their jobs as sacrificial lambs for this corporate gap and their fa
Read more