Customers are pretty fickle, well I am! While they want to support small businesses, they’ll only do so if they’re sure that they’ll get quality products and services. Ultimately, while they wish small businesses the best, it’s their own needs that come first. These are my top tips on how to make your business look more professional, for example do not use a Hotmail or similar email account, get a domain name for your business and use that.
Customers look for signs that a business is worth their time, effort, and money, with one of the main signifiers being the professionalism of the organisation. If a business ticks all of the ‘they’re a professional company’ boxes, then customers will have no reason to doubt them.
Alas, all too often, businesses less than a year old often fall short in this area. Eager to get started, they overlook some key factors that undermine how customers view them. In this post, we’re going to run through a bunch of easy-to-follow tips that will turbocharge your professionalism, which in turn should lead to an improvement in sales.
Critically Look At Your Website
New business owners often rush to get their website online, but in the process, they often make some mistakes that can impact the impression it makes on potential customers. For instance, the navigation might be a little off, the website copy may contain errors, and links may not function correctly.
It’s recommended to look closely at your website and make sure that all components are as they should be. If you hastily designed your website yourself when you first launched your business, then it may also be worthwhile hiring a website designer to redo the website.
Solidify Your Google Business Page
Your Google Business Page can be vitally important, especially if you’re a brick-and-mortar store. It’s a key signifier that customers look at to determine the legitimacy of your website. If your Google Page contains little or no information, then not only will the customer not believe your business is professional, but they may question whether it exists at all.
You have a lot of control over your Google Business Page. You can add opening hours, photos, contact information, and other details, so fill out as much as you can. It’s an easy, simple way to help create a positive image in the eyes of your potential customers.
Use High-Quality Images
Back to your website. In the early days of your business, you were probably happy to use whatever photographs you could for your website and other promotional materials, such as your posters, flyers, and leaflets. After all, when you have so many other vital pre-launch tasks to complete, making sure you have perfect photographs is usually pretty low down the list. Now that things have settled, however, it’s time to revisit those images and see if you can upgrade them to photographs that will really pack a punch. Working with a photographer — or learning how to take great photos yourself — will give you photos that work much better than using stock images.
Invest in Flyers and Leaflets
And talking of using photographs — do you have flyers and leaflets for your brand? This can be an excellent way to both drum up new and repeat business. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, then handing out these types of promotional materials in your local area will fully announce your arrival. You can also include them in the packages you send to your online customers; it’s a small touch that highlights that you’re a serious operation. These types of materials are easy to make at an online print shop, where you can also buy business cards and business stationery. Remember, anything that looks professional will give the professionalism of your business a boost.
Showcase Your Expertise
Professional brands are more likely to be trusted by consumers. While you can’t compete, budget or reach-wise, with large corporations, you can still showcase your expertise. The internet is pretty democratic in that way. There are multiple ways that you can show your audience that you deeply understand the products and services you offer, including hosting blog posts, recording podcasts, and putting together educational videos.
This won’t just be helpful to your target audience, but it’ll also show that you believe in what you’re doing — flash-in-the-pan brands are unlikely to invest the time and effort to put together an informative blog, for instance.
Avoid People-Pleasing
You can see why small businesses engage in people-pleasing practices. They want to make sure that they get a customer. However, while this approach is understandable, it can often backfire. Brands that try too hard to please their customers can look a little unprofessional.
Let’s think about an example. Let’s say that you offer photography services, and a potential customer asks if you can provide a discount and that they can pay in two months’ time. If those aren’t things that you usually offer, and which you’re not interested in offering, then it’ll be best to say no. After all, you’re trying to run a professional operation!
Rethink Your Packaging
In the early days of your business, you won’t think too much about the packaging that you send to your online customers. What counts will be the quality of the item that they find on the inside. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that packaging really does impact how customers view your business. They’ll be more likely to be impressed — and see you as a professional outfit — if you have packaging that’s in line with your overall branding. You can usually buy packaging pretty cheaply, so don’t settle for basic, non-commercial packaging options.
Stop Answering the Phone
By this, we don’t mean that you should ignore your customers’ calls. What we mean is that maybe you don’t need to be the one to actually answer them. If you don’t receive many calls, then it’ll probably be fine to answer them yourself — however, if you’re continually picking up the phone, or, worse, you’re missing calls from potential customers, then it’ll be best to look at outsourcing the responsibility to an answering service.
It always looks better when it’s someone other than the owner picking up the phone. Plus, you can’t be expected to answer every call anyway — and there are few things more unprofessional than phone calls that are never picked up.
Ask For and Display Reviews
Shouting about how awesome your business is will make an impression on your customers. However, it’ll be even better if your customers can read what other customers have had to say about your business. This is a surefire way to elevate your professionalism since the quality of your business will essentially be verified by other people. If you receive a great review, showcase it on your website — it really might make the difference between making a sale or not. Don’t have any reviews yet? Ask your customers for them. Many people are happy to provide a great review (if they’ve had a great experience, at least) to young businesses.
Look At What Your Competitors Are Doing
You can’t be expected to have all the staples of a professional business. After all, you’re still young, and you also have to spend time doing your actual work, rather than just focusing on appearances. One effective way to elevate the professionalism of your business is to look at what your competitors are doing — are there any professional touches that you could include in your own business?
Do What You Promise You’ll Do
Finally, remember the fundamental element of professionalism — doing what you say you’ll do. Ultimately, this is the number one thing that customers look for. If you can deliver what they expect, then they can have no complaints.
If you have any more tips on how to make your business look more professional, I would love to know in the comments below.
