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Credibility is one of the currencies of today’s internet. A business with a strong reputation enjoys more success than one without.
Similarly, a business owner with greater credibility engenders faith and confidence in his or her company. Credible companies enjoy more word of mouth advertising, more referrals, and a shorter sales cycle.
Part of gaining credibility is building trust between your customers and yourself.
Here are five ways to build that trust:
1) Follow through with promises. Whether you’re offering a 3-day sale, special pricing, are releasing a new product, or there’s some other promise you’ve made; do your best to always honor it. Part of fulfilling promises is to stand firm on your rules. If you promise to only sell 50 licenses of a particular product and it has sold out, don’t sell more. If you have a sale that is only good through Thursday and people contact you on Friday wanting to get the sale price, stand firm, apologize and say no. While they may not be happy, they will know that you keep your promise to your customers.
2) Show that you care and respect others. Listen to what your followers and customers say. Acknowledge their concerns and respect their opinions. While, you cannot please everyone and may not be able to meet every demand, if you show that you care about your people, your credibility will increase.
3) Customer and client testimonials can help you establish credibility. People want to see proof that something is good. As the business owner, they won’t take your word for it. Displaying testimonials from satisfied customers goes a long way towards building credibility. Audio and video testimonials are much more effective than written ones.
4) Have an opinion- and share it. If you believe in something, let it be known and stand behind it. Sitting atop the proverbial fence may make your customers question your methods. How can you sell them on an idea if you don’t even know what you believe? Credible people stand by their ideas even when they are unconventional.
5) Have passion about what you’re doing. If you are enthusiastic about your products and services others will be too. Your affiliates, friends and family, co-workers, partners and others will feed off of your enthusiasm and passion and in turn spread it to others. If you’re shy use the written word to share your passion.
The goal is to build a credible business that your clients want to do business with.