5 Habits That Will Lose Your Customer’s Trust

It’s incredibly important to retain the trust of your customers if you want to keep their business and get additional referrals from them later on.

There are also a few sure ways that you can quickly lose your customer’s trust if you’re not careful.

1. Offering More Than You Can Actually Provide

It can seem easy to promise something to a customer — especially a customer that you want to keep happy. Whether it involves material costs or deadlines, it’s important to never promise more than you can provide.

Even an accidental misquote could make a customer wary of your services, or even lose their business. Make sure that you know exactly what you can and can’t provide before you send in a quote.

2. Not Calling Them Back or Being Inaccessible

You should always make sure that your clients can reach you. If they can’t ask you questions about their job, they may start to doubt you — even if you’re actually on top of things.

Giving your customers progress reports and calling them back as soon as possible is always the best business practice. You can also have multiple venues of contact — such as by emails or text messaging — so that you can stay on top of things without having to always be on the phone.

3. Changing the Scope of the Project Too Often

Adapting to your current situation by proposing a change to a project is fine, but if you do it too often you’ll quickly lose the faith of your customers. Think through any changes you make to the project carefully before proposing it to the customer to ensure that you don’t have to change it again.

4. Having Unprofessional Staff Members

Though you may try your best to present yourself as professional all the time, your staff members may not. Having unprofessional staff members can easily lose your customer’s trust.

Make sure all of your employees have a clean, professional appearance and are well-trained. Having a section of your employee handbook regarding proper appearance and having clear set protocols is a good way to ensure this.

5. Not Knowing the Status of the Project

Delegating tasks is essential to running a company, but if your customers feel as though you don’t know what’s going on in their project they may begin to distrust you.

Always make sure that your employees brief you on the projects — especially any recent developments. Schedule some time out of every day to discuss any issues with them and find out more about the current progress.

Key Takeaways

• Ensure that you never offer more than you can deliver.

• Always be accessible for communication.

• Don’t change your mind too often.

• Train your staff members to be professional.

• Keep updated on all of your jobs.