In this hyper-connected and competitive environment, keeping your customers satisfied is non-negotiable. According to a Walker study, by the year 2020 providing great customer experience and building long-term relationships will be the major differentiators for your business, overtaking price and product features as the key differentiating factors.
A relationship becomes strong only with trust and openness. Your relationship with your customers is no different. Staying accessible, being easily reachable to customers, and engaging with them at each stage of their customer journey are the first steps to building customer trust. Here are a few important reasons why you should care about being reachable to your audience.
3 Ways Being Reachable Improves Customer Trust
1. It Provides Convenience
Convenience is a critical factor which impacts the customer experience and their purchase decisions. Imagine yourself from the customer’s perspective. When you’re looking for a specific product or service, how would you evaluate similar businesses?
One product’s website offers answers to FAQs, is easy-to-navigate, and has a responsive email/phone number for support. Meanwhile, the other website offers great content and online experience, but chooses to hide all contact information, making it impossible to reach out to them. Undoubtedly, you’ll choose the first product over the second, not because you have any issues or questions regarding the product now, but because when you do have questions in the future, you always have the option to reach out to them.
Staying easily reachable and sharing contact information on relevant pages of the website gives the idea of perceived convenience and it can work wonders for building customer trust.
2. It Adds Credibility to Your Business Profile
Every single customer interaction impacts a customer’s perception of your brand, and your business wants to stand out as credible and trustworthy. Your website is your online workspace where customers interact with you and it should reflect your brand values. Make sure your contact information is easy to find and give links to multiple platforms to reach you, including social media pages.
Second, build credibility by sharing reviews from existing customers. You do not manage a business in isolation, so it’s not possible to build customer trust just with your own actions. Use a combination of tools like testimonial pages and links to product/service review websites to allow prospects to see how your existing customers perceive your products/services.
Reading reviews (including negative reviews) boosts your credibility in customer’s eyes and also helps in proving that your business is a real business that is easily reachable in case of any real issues. Take ownership of your online profiles on multiple platforms and respond to reviews to show your prospects that you’re always reachable and ready to hear their feedback.
3. It Improves Brand Equity and Brings Value to Customers
According to a recent study, emotion trumps reason when customers are making a purchase decision, even in a B2B scenario. Hence, it is important that your business and your brand are perceived in a positive light by customers. One way to build a positive brand perception is to include website elements requesting feedback from prospects and customers. This can include engaging elements like pop-up customer surveys, feedback buttons, live chat options, opinion polls, request forms, etc. Not only will this build customer trust, but it will also help remove the guesswork from your marketing activities, bring value to your customers, and aid in further improving the customer experience.
According to a study by Stella Service, a dissatisfied customer tells between 9 to 15 people about their experience, and negative interactions with a business are spread to twice as many people as the positive experiences. Engaging and being easily reachable to customers reduces the probability that a negative experience is left unattended, and it improves the chances of growing your business. For prospects visiting your site, it’s a direct signal that you’re always reachable when they have feedback to share, which automatically improves customer trust.
Make your customers feel that you really care about them by providing contact information and being receptive and responsive to their feedback. The product/service you offer is not just to make a profit for your business, but to provide value to your end customers. When they truly believe that, you will win long-term loyalty and grow sales in your business.
About the author: Sneha is a passionate digital marketer who works as the Marketing and Customer Service Manager with SuperSaaS Online Appointment Scheduling System. She is passionate about food & travel and in her leisure time likes to write on her blog Mr & Mrs Sachdeva. She has an extensive experience of working with startups and small businesses and helping them scale up their marketing teams.
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