The reputation of your business is the greatest factor determining the long term success of any and all of your marketing efforts. Your reputation is recreated every day with each customer who encounters your business. However, you dont have just one business reputation, but many reputations which are created in the minds of clients with whom you interact in the daily functioning of your business activities. It is just as critical to know that you have a reputation among people who have had no contact with you but heard tell of you from others.
There is a famous song by Joan Jett from days past called Bad Reputation. Joan was a popular rocker of her age, but she also had good marketing sense. She postured herself as the bad girl of the rock world, and the song Bad Reputation was a huge hit. In the ever nonconformist scene of alternative rock, a woman proud to flaunt her bad reputation was quite popular. She probably bent the truth a little when she sang I dont give a damn about my bad reputation as she likely cared a lot about her bad reputation, it was what made her marketable! She used that image to gain immortality.
Unluckily for the majority of us, a unacceptable reputation does not stand as a desirable marketing tool to grow our business. The few contradictions to this rule other than musicians might be trial lawyers, repo men, or bail bondsmen who make it a point to be recognized for their dangerous air and fearsome reputation. For the average person it just doesnt work.
You must remember that each of your deeds, and everything your employees do, in the name of your business adds to your reputation. Mulligans are not allowed in businesses in the real world. You can try to remedy situations that might have put your business reputation in a bad light. Really, repairing difficulties appropriately can be a real opportunity. However, you will never change peoples memory of the events that caused someone to think badly of your business.
Each experience you have with customers in your business has one of three outcomes that affect your reputation. Two of these outcomes are not good, the other one is terrific!
The first is an experience you have with a client, or potential client, in which you dont fail horribly, but you also dont do anything to stand out from rivals. You may not think this is the worst outcome, but it isnt far from it. You have managed to be at best normal in the mind of a customer. You will likely be either forgotten in the future, or thought of as someone that did OK last time.
The second result is when you, or your employee, has committed a big enough error to insure the customer is really mad at you. It can get no worse for your business. Not only have you lost a customer, you have left no doubt that you have also lost anyone who listens to that customer when they talk about you. There is no way to calculate the full damage that will occur. If you as a business owner have knowingly permitted this to transpire, then you have no right to complain about the negative impact it will have. But many times the business owner is unaware of what has transpired if the issue happened when only an employee was present, or not during their own interactions with the customer. You cant assume that dissatisfied customers will take the time to inform you what transpired. Often they simply never return and no opportunity exists to remedy it. If you uncover the problem, but dont correct it, then again you deserve the unfortunate reputation it fuels. However, if you take the time to go to every length to right the situation, you will have employed a wonderful chance in business to reassure a customer that you want their loyalty and will go the any length or extreme to display interest.
The third result is what all business owners should seek in each and every interaction with clients. Your goal is persuade the clients, and potential clients, that besides supplying top-class goods or services, you care deeply about how goods or services meet a need of the customer. It concerns gaining trust with your clients so that they know you will never fail to meet their needs. When successful in this goal you know you have grown a loyal customer whos value far surpasses any purchase they make.
Aiding in the creation such loyal customers is our goal. Hopefully if you have concern about developing your business based upon this approach you will give serious consideration to registering for our services.
Article Source: http://www.orbitaloc.com/
BizRave Inc. provides marketing consulting and internet marketing services for small businesses. Please visit BizRave.com for more information and articles on customer relationship based marketing.
Please Rate The Above Article From The Marketing Category
Article Title: Your business reputation
Not yet Rated
Syndicate Marketing Related Articles Via RSS!
Subject to Orbitaloc.com's Publisher Terms of Service, you may reprint this
article on your own website, blog, and ezine. (English only) You may also syndicate
the article via Really Simple Syndication (RSS). It is free of charge.
Free Articles on Marketing and Other FREE Content Article Topics
The preceeding is an informative article from the Marketing category.
