Reputation is everything when it comes to any business, but smaller businesses make take particular precaution. According to O2,
- Seven out of ten customers never forgive a small business if they experience bad service
- Over half of consumers believe all businesses, no matter what size, should have a website
- Four in five now go online to research a small business before they use them
Here are some common yet easily preventable mistakes that can cause a small business’ reputation to crumble.
1. Making empty promises
Expect some serious backlash if you’re offering a warranty on your product without ensuring the permanent availability of its parts; or offering to fix an error that appears on a website you have designed that has since been managed by another party.
2. Providing bad customer service – or no service at all
Gives the impression that either you don’t care about your customers, don’t know how to help them, or don’t have time to address their problems. This will cause customers to lose confidence in your company quickly. Make sure to allocate sufficient time and resources to customer service.
3. Lackluster updates
If your company is has joined social media, keep in mind that your fans are the best judges of whether a post is valuable or not, as they read hundreds of posts every day. Your posts have to resonate among your competition.
4. Lack of respect for timeframes
Basically, if you can’t deliver the goods, don’t give unrealistic deadlines. You should be at least on par with your competitors. Or, if timing isn’t within your company’s unique selling points (USP), highlight the ones that can help you win over potential clients. My favorite piece of advice that was given to me when I first entered the job market many moons ago, was to under-promise and over-deliver. If a project or quote will take you two days to complete, promise three days, and deliver in two. Always best to leave your clients pleasantly surprised than unexpectedly annoyed.
5. Debating controversial topics
Your customers will undoubtedly have differing views on politics, religion, or current events. Focus on keeping an objective view of these topics or anything that can isolate your stakeholders. Social media is too vast a platform to engage in topics that divert attention from your business or service, and will simply have a negative impact on those who want to business with you.
6. Unhappy workers
The online world makes it very easy to give people a voice, anonymously or not. This includes disgruntled employees. Treat these essential components of your business fairly and give them the opportunity to be heard the right (offline) forum. It’s equally important that your human resources department is equipped with information to protect both parties to avoid defamation.
7. Constantly modifying your user interface
I think most of us can agree that there’s nothing more irritating than getting used to a certain platform or experience, and then having to get used to a complete overhaul – especially if it’s worse than what you started with. Of course, you will have naysayers either way, but if you keep challenging your audience, it’ll only threaten likeability (no pun intended!). So, try to stick with the tried and true, and make only necessary changes. After all, enhancements should make engagement easier, not more difficult, so keep that in mind.
8. Complaining
Bottom line, save your complaints for family and friends. Your customers don’t need to hear it, and chances are, they don’t want to. When you’re seeking a product or service, the last thing you need to experience is that disgruntled employee I talked about in #6.
9. Selling and communicating too much
There is a fine line between engaging with your customers and being down-right annoying. As a professional organization, daily text or email blasts will do you more harm than good. Eventually, people tune out, and you’ll never get them back. I once had the displeasure of dealing with a sales rep who would try to meet me for coffee on a weekly basis, or casually drop into my office assuming I had nothing better to do. It got to a point where he got the best of my friendly demeanor and my dark side had to come out. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Plan your communication calendar and sales calls carefully so that you can monitor how often and much you are interacting with your clients.
10. Shock advertising
“Shock advertising or Shockvertising deliberately, rather than inadvertently, startles and offends its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals.” Shocking advertising content may also entail improper or indecent language, like French Connection‘s “fcuk” campaign. While recognized as a form of art in Poland, German and Dutch, it is still quite a sensitive form of advertising, so be sure to evaluate whether this is the right approach for your business before you employ it.
Your reputation is a delicate asset. Of course, there will be blunders, trials and errors along the way, but how you handle these blunders is what will ultimately help you realize your ultimate success or failure. If you spend too much time rectifying a problem that could have been avoided in the first place, you’re potentially denying new and fruitful opportunities, not to mention damaging the integrity of your business.
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Andrea E. Antal is a corporate communications consultant for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), interested in marketing, public relations and the digital social landscape. She is certified in marketing communications from the University of Toronto, Canada, and has worked with a variety of leading brands. She currently lives in the Kingdom of Bahrain since 2010. She has a blog and you can find her on LinkedIn and on Twitter @andreaeantal
