All entrepreneurs should understand the value of customers. If you didn’t have any, your venture couldn’t go on. After all, no matter the reason you decided to launch your business, it does exist to sell something. Often this is a product or service, but some ventures sell both. If yours can’t fulfil this purpose and you instead drive customers away, then it can cause serious trouble. With that in mind, here six common reasons why customers stop buying from small businesses.
Using Aggressive Sales Tactics
Customers today are incredibly resistant to aggressive sales tactics. Although they might have been effective a few years ago, heavy-handed sales techniques will do more harm than good these days. Even if you manage to make a sale, you can almost guarantee that the customer in question won’t be back. Instead of being pushy with people, you should establish trust with them.
Giving Less Than Promised
Nothing will ruin the trust a customer has with you more than a broken promise. For this reason, you have to deliver on the things you tell customers you will. You must also have all of the tools that you require, whether they be a delivery van, diesel generator, or basic pen and paper. When unsure whether or not you can deliver, you should underpromise, but aim to go that extra mile.
Charging Far Too Much
Many factors are involved in whether or not a customer chooses to buy from you. However, there’s no use in denying that cost plays a pretty big part. Even if a customer purchases your goods once, they might go elsewhere if they can find them cheaper. Drawing attention to any additional features that your products have will add value to them, justifying the higher cost.
Making Checking Out Complicated
The business world is very fast moving. Because of this, once a customer has chosen to make a purchase with you, they must be able to do so right away. The longer it takes for customers to check out, the more likely it is that they will abandon their carts. You can make the checkout process less complicated by removing unnecessary steps and offering quick payment options.
Forgetting To Post Online
Social media is a big part of our lives these days. Most people check their platforms at least once every few hours, making this an incredibly effective marketing tool for businesses. By posting regular content, you remind customers that you exist, making it likely that they’ll make a purchase. Without these reminders, customers will eventually forget about your company.
Ignoring All Customer Feedback
The people best equipped to tell you how to improve your service are often the customers themselves. For this reason, you must make sure that you read all customer feedback. Receiving a bad review definitely isn’t fun, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t useful. Instead of ignoring what your customers say, you should address their concerns and do better.
Hopefully, after reading the advice above, you have some idea of how your business can improve for its customers.