Recently, I read 12 Most Simple Ideas To Build Trust With Me As Your Customer, a post by Andy Hanselman on 12most.com. To read this article in its entirety, do visit 12 Most.
It did remind me of something else that I have been thinking about lately: Skepticism is rife and trust is not easily won but your people can help.
However, back to the original article. It’s a great list of 12 ideas. The two that I really like are:
5. Follow up calls to check that everything is ok!
10. Giving me the same deal as the new customers you’re trying to attract!
Why? Well, first of all I personally know about the power of the first one and have written about before in: Customer experience, bikram yoga and word of mouth marketing. Also, we all have phones in our businesses but we often the things that stops us making the calls are time (just make the time) and thoughts around ‘what if they aren’t there’ (be prepared to leave a message).
The second one just screams of fairness and value, as Andy points out in the original post. The other thing that occurs to me is that it’s really easy to do. If you’re going to do it as a promotional offer to attract new clients then it doesn’t take a lot of work to apply the same offer to existing clients too. It will also give you an opportunity to get back in touch with them. And, in doing that with an offer of a better deal, I’ve always found with clients that I have worked with that it can result in some great new business opportunities.
