For every budding entrepreneur, it’s like his dream to establish a successful brand for his product or service. But unfortunately, brands are not created overnight! Branding is a long process, which time duly tests for patience, perseverance, and above all commitment.
Always remember, no business can build a brand for itself unless & until it truly understands its customers and serves what they value now and on. Thus, building relations with your customers is the foremost step in the process of brand development.
Confused! Why emphasize on relationship to ensure the perpetuity of Brand?
Let me simplify it.
# To Bring In Persistence
No doubt, there are a plenty of businesses that have a short term aim and their age is comparatively lesser. But a majority of entrepreneurs aspire to walk with their customers for generations, and for those, it’s very crucial to embrace policies that not only foster relationships but deepen the bond with their customers. As long as you nourish the relationship, you will be able to translate the emotional care to strengthen your brand credibility and business development process. Thereby, you can serve the industry for a longer period of time.
# To Attract New Customers
Almost every successful brand has a history of achieving greater customer satisfaction. And, greater customer satisfaction ramps up the likeliness of your brand being referred to others by words of mouth. So, if your brand strategy is to fulfill your objectives through customer satisfaction, then gear up to entertain a stream of new customers, as referrals would spell their magic. Also bear in mind that apart from being a constant source of business, a satisfied customer is an active source of new business too. Hence, unlike the alternative methods such as costly billboards, TV & radio ads etc., you can rely on this “Word of Mouth” strategy to gain new customers.
# To Build Trust
“It takes years to build a castle of trust, but a single blow to break it”.
As per Amanda Rogaly of ‘food sure’, the impact on a brand’s reputation is lethal when a brand fails to present reliable information, acts unethical, or mishandles the claims of customers.
Brands were long perceived as hungry faceless entities, trying hard to bait the patrons. However, over time marketers realized that they need to develop a trustful relation with customers to retain their loyalty.
To build trust, one needs to develop a relationship first, and further nurture it with love and care, and since brands somewhere serve as an icon of trust; it becomes very crucial for them to honor relationships with their customers.
As a brand owner, you can leverage a few points, as discussed below, to strengthen relationship with your customers:
• Keep making appointments
• Promptly get back in touch if any follow-ups were promised
• Frequently communicate growth made toward an established deadline (Indeed, a great way of showing you care for your client)
# To Instill Confidence
How often you show your care and concern for solving a customer’s problems? Do you reach out your customers before, during or after the delivery goods? What is the purpose of communicating with them? As a brand, many times we miss the mark and forget what we did to our customers; however, they don’t. “Your customers remember everything and aren’t shy to share it with their social network”. This is perhaps the main reason why winning a customer’s confidence comes under the essentials of an entrepreneur’s rule book. In the world where customer’s loyalty isn’t guaranteed, winning a customer’s confidence through your care and concern might keep you in his mind for a little longer.
# To Compete Smoothly
The likelihood of gaining a competitive edge over your rivals just because you want it is non-existent. Marketers should remember that more than anything else, a business is a ‘management of promises’ and if you can keep every promise you made to your customers, you’re already much ahead in the race. There might be thousands of customers in the market; however, entrepreneurs should be aware that it is much more expensive to get a new customer than keeping the ones you already have. With their marketing efforts, entrepreneurs should seek to nurture a class of customers who trust them and will go out of their way to tell everyone how good they are. As first-rate client support and service is a result of the collaborative efforts of an organization, it is much vital to instill a ‘customer-centric’ approach in the team around you.
While the technology is evolving continuously for better, one thing that hasn’t diminished is the contribution of a warm humanistic approach in the success of a business. Businesses have to shift their focus on building lasting relationships with their customers; it will help them to seek long term profits.
Author Bio:
Ankit Gupta manages ExportersIndia.com, A well known buyers and sellers business marketplace based in India. Owing to his passion for writing, Ankit keeps sharing his valuable insights with marketers of small businesss owners and start-ups, to keep them upaded with the latest business trends and branding. You can Follow him on Google+, Twitter or LinkedIn to get more updates related to business.
