Credibility remains critical

For almost any small business, credibility is critical. If you aren’t credible, customers won’t trust in your ability to deliver a good product or service, and are more likely to take their business elsewhere. Lack of credibility also leads to a poor reputation, more complaints and unkind reviews on social media.
Thanks in part to social media, today’s customers expect much more transparency from businesses – including small ones. And greater transparency means that businesses and the people who run them must be more accountable than ever before. Being accountable makes you and your business credible – and that’s a valuable asset you want to both create and protect.
Many things can damage credibility – over-promising, customer-service slipups, poor communication and wrong information are just a few. Lack of credibility hurts your bottom line, leads to low productivity and can alienate employees, vendors and customers.
Cavalier promises. We’ve all dealt with people or businesses that simply don’t keep their promises: “I’ll get back to you tomorrow on that.” “Your order will be delivered by Monday.” “Sure, we can handle that kind of volume.” Making promises is easy, but following through is the hard part. Businesses that master the follow-through part gain credibility. Don’t make a promise unless you can keep it.
Empty slogans. Countless small businesses claim they’ll go the extra mile for customers, and will put client interests above their own. Far fewer actually do that. Don’t be a business that spouts platitudes but leaves customers unsatisfied.
Thunder theft. Do you have people in your business who draft off the work of others – and then take credit for it? This kind of behavior costs them credibility, and also can cost your business credibility as clients and customers see through employees who try to take credit for things they weren’t responsible for producing.
Expense-account cheaters. While this is usually considered an internal issue, it has broader implications for the business as well. Any lack of financial accountability needs to be stopped. Employees who don’t have a problem lying about their expenses are just as likely to lie about other things, and to clients, and that can be even more costly to your business. •


Daniel Kehrer can be reached at editor@bizbest.com.

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