Five Tips to Strengthen your Business Reputation
The best foundation for a growing and prosperous business is a rock-solid reputation of integrity and capability. Here are five steps toward building and maintaining that reputation.
1. Practice strong COMMUNICATION skills
Write Well – Pay attention to spelling, basic grammar, and legibility.
Listen – Be willing to listen to what your customers and potential customers are trying to tell you.
Be Informative – Don’t assume the person you’re talking with knows everything you know. Share as much detail as you can to make sure you’re both on the same page.
2. Keep your COMPOSURE
Temper, Temper – No matter what happens, don’t get mad. Anger in a business setting is never productive and is often quite destructive.
Practice Patience – Some days it may feel like you’re answering the same basic questions over and over, but the last person that asked it doesn’t know you’ve already answered that question ten times.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff – Let minor inconveniences or small losses of money go without a fuss and you’ll develop a strong reputation worth far more than those minor hiccups.
3. Always be COURTEOUS
Be Respectful – No matter what kind of mood you’re in, never let your customers or potential customers see you as anything but polite and respectful. The more difficult your customer is, the more they will remember and be impressed by your respectful attitude.
Extra Mile – Don’t be afraid to be generous with your customers. Especially if you’ve made an error in any way, offer them something extra to make up for it.
Benefit of the Doubt – Even if you’re 100% sure your customer is wrong about something, don’t flat-out tell them they are wrong. You don’t have to let yourself be taken advantage of, but protecting yourself does not require getting angry and calling someone a liar. Stay polite and then move on.
4. Help your customers build CONFIDENCE in you
Stay True – Always, to the very best of your ability, stay true to your word. If something ever comes up and you absolutely can’t keep your promise to your customer, be proactive and get ahead of it immediately with clear, courteous communication and compensation if applicable.
Guarantees – Stand behind your product. Be willing/able to refund money to unhappy customers if they can return your product in the same condition it was sent out in. Have a concise, fair, well-written TOS and Return Policy.
Keep Records – Get organized and keep accurate records of your animals’ lineage and histories, as well as records of all sales and contact info.
5. Work with impeccable COMPETENCE
Do Your Job – Raise healthy animals and/or sell only quality product. When shipping, pack them properly and professionally. Be consistent with excellence.
Don’t Cut Corners – At best, cutting corners makes you look cheap and incompetent, causing your customers to lose confidence in you. At worst, you may be putting your animals’ well-being at risk.
No Excuses – Never make excuses. Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes. Don’t make excuses for yours, just apologize, make amends if necessary, learn from them, and move on.
You’ll get all this and more when you ship with us. We’ll go out of our way to make sure you have the absolute best shipping experience possible!
A special note from one of our founders, Robyn Markland
I love this customer service philosophy. We strive to meet this standard every day. We always want to bend over backwards to service our customers, to make it right for the customer.
For an honest, well-meaning customer, even one that has made a boneheaded mistake, we are going to do our best to make it right, to work with the customer, even if it means we eat a few, or many dollars.
But I have little patience for the thief or the scammer. Bend over backwards for the customer, do whatever is needed, UNTIL you find that they are stealing from you or scamming you. You should not accept that treatment or loss. You might have to write off the loss, but you can then write off the customer. Deactivate an account, block their IP, don’t take their calls, don’t sell to them again. Don’t let scumbags take advantage of your hard work and goodwill.
As the great Patrick Swayze said, “Be nice. Until it’s time to not be nice.”
Hard work pays. Character and integrity pay. Don’t put up with scammers and thieves!