The key to building a loyal, long-lasting client base is trust. You don’t establish trust with customers overnight. It takes an extended time of consistent action that demonstrates you’re a trustworthy company acting in their best interest. Here are trust-building tips to improve your relationships.
Offer Value with Each Interaction
Does your client feel like they have meaningful interactions every time they engage with you or your company? Identify ways that you can help each person, even before they become a client. Make sure that you offer assistance that is relevant to their needs. Many people deal with a lot of signal-to-noise through advertisements and marketing messages that don’t apply to their life or needs. You don’t want to contribute to that problem.
Deliver on Your Promises
If you promise to do something for a client, always deliver or let them know why you can’t fulfill it. The last thing you want is to get a reputation for being unreliable. That could hurt your long-term relationship with that account. All it takes is a few bad reviews for you to have problems bringing in new clients.
Set Expectations
Some people have unrealistic expectations – making it difficult to provide them the service they hope to receive. When you set reasonable expectations early on in the process, everyone is on the same page. You can save yourself a lot of frustration when the client understands what you can and can’t do for them.
Personalize the Experience
Once you learn more about a potential or current client, ensure that all of your communication and interactions are personalized for their needs. Businesses have more ways to collect data than ever before, so leverage that to improve the customer experience. A customer relationship management or marketing automation solution can help you track all of this information so you can use it effectively.
Follow-up Proactively
Don’t wait for your clients to reach out to you about potential problems. Have a regular follow-up schedule to stay on their radar. Hear about issues before they become a major problem. By keeping this line of communication open, you also make the client feel more comfortable about bringing up concerns rather than leaving for a competitor.
Customer relationship management software can automate follow up emails so you don’t have to remember to do this manually. If someone forgets to follow up, this type of solution also sends notifications and reminders.
Many customers want to see authenticity in the businesses they work with. Younger generations, in particular, enjoy seeing personality from companies, rather than a nameless, faceless entity. They want to know that they share similar values to you and can feel good about choosing you over a competitor. When you’re authentic in your communication, you can convey this trustworthiness. Authenticity is particularly important when you talk to people on social media.
A client who trusts you is worth a lot to your business. They will post positive reviews, refer their social circle to you, and continue to work with you over the long term. It takes time to accomplish this with each account, but it’s well worth it when you have an active, engaged, and loyal customer base.
