Customer confidence is an essential element of any business. If your customers don’t have confidence in your brand, they’re more likely to leave for another brand. On the other hand, customers with confidence are not only more likely to stick around but also recommend you to others. By implementing a few changes to boost customer confidence, you can significantly boost your sales numbers over the long term. Below are a few easy ways to start instilling confidence in your customers.
Make a Strong First Impression
Instilling confidence in your brand begins the moment a customer first interacts with your business. Much of customer confidence comes from their first impression. How your customers get their first impression can come in many ways, such as visiting your website for the first time or visiting your physical location. Therefore, you need to focus on making a good impression for each possible way that your customers might meet you.
Start by figuring out which way your customers learn about you the most. For example, an eCommerce business likely makes the most first impressions through its website, followed by social media accounts. Once you identify the most popular methods, look for ways to make a stronger impression. This could mean revamping your website or providing more training to your employees.
Create a Professional Office Space
Next, if you have a physical office space where you host customers or clients, it’s essential that you create a professional atmosphere. From the second a client walks through your doors, they’ll be using everything they see to form an impression of your business. If you don’t have a professional environment, now is the time to start creating it.
To start, you may want to work with an interior designer to help with some of the design elements of your office, such as the paint color or furniture. After that, make sure you have guidelines in place so that your employees help to maintain a professional atmosphere at work, such as a dress code or rules for how they can decorate their workspace. Finally, add some small touches that will instill confidence in your customers. For example, you can display your Chamber of Commerce trophies or other awards you’ve received, or some pictures of your completed projects.
Go the Extra Mile
One of the best ways to instill confidence in your customers is by finding ways to go the extra mile. Customers appreciate when you go above and beyond to provide an exceptional experience and they will remember it for a long time. For example, rather than just issuing a refund for a defective product, you could also provide an additional discount on their next purchase as a way of apologizing for the inconvenience. This not only demonstrates to your customers that you value their business but also encourages them to come back, now that they have a discount.
Whenever you’re engaging with your customers, ask yourself how you can make things even better for them. If you can establish a culture within your business where it’s encouraged to go the extra mile, this will have great long-term effects on your business’s reputation.
Publish Previous Customer Reviews
According to one study, 81 percent of people conduct research before deciding where to spend their money. One way to instill confidence in potential customers is by sharing reviews from previous customers. Just as you’re more likely to buy a product with an average 5-star rating as opposed to a 1-star rating, potential customers are more likely to choose your brand if previous customers had a good experience.
Every time your business has a good interaction with a customer, encourage them to leave a review online. You can also ask some of your bigger clients for testimonials, which you can publish on your website. Look for as many opportunities as you can find to share customer reviews with the world, as these positive experiences will help to instill confidence in future prospects.
Implement Customer Feedback
Finally, make sure you’re asking for, and implementing, customer feedback. Customers appreciate it when their voices are heard and will have more confidence in your brand if you implement improvements based on feedback. For example, a customer may recommend some changes that you can make to your product to improve it. If you make these changes, and then alert that customer of the updates, they’re more likely to stick around with your business knowing you listen to their advice.
If you don’t have a system in place for collecting customer feedback, now is the time to set one up. It could be as simple as creating a page on your website or even sending out an email to past customers. Once you’ve started gathering feedback, make sure you’re reviewing it regularly and exploring the most popular suggestions.