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How to Give Your Customers Virtual Estimates

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for many businesses to operate, especially with social distancing guidelines in effect throughout the world. Of all the businesses affected, service businesses have had to do some of the most adapting during these difficult times.

Much like a majority of the other roadblocks businesses encounter, the digital world comes to save us yet again. By offering virtual meetings, giving virtual estimates, and even providing customer care virtually, any business can continue being helpful to their clients or customers during this pandemic.

If you’ve been wondering how your business can successfully make this transition as smooth as possible, don’t worry. We’re going to detail what you need to do to better help your customers during this difficult time.

1. Assessment

The first thing you need to do is assess what you’re capable of doing virtually. Not everything is going to be possible, but certain services and procedures can. For example, contractors can give estimates for a repair job virtually, but won’t be able to complete the repair without physically being there.

Try writing every single service you provide on a piece of paper. Grab a separate piece of paper and separate it into two columns -- one labeled ‘virtual’ and one labeled ‘contact.’ If a service can be done virtually, put it in the corresponding column. Do the same with non-virtual services.

Once you find the services that can be done virtually, you’ll be well on your way to making your customers feel much more comfortable about doing business with you -- especially those that are at an increased risk of getting sick.

That was just the first step, though. There’s more to do if you want to deploy those virtual services properly, but that’s where the decision comes in.

2. Decision

The second step in this process is the decision. It involves deciding between the various different options available when launching your virtual services. With the way technology is always advancing, it might seem the opportunities are endless.

Most business owners immediately think of utilizing phone calls and emails, which are certainly helpful in some situations. At the same time, customers already have access to those. If they trusted it, they’d already be using it.

That’s where video calls truly come in handy. Many of them don’t require much to get set up, whether you’re a customer or business owner -- such as Zoom, Skype, Facebook Messenger, and Google Hangouts.

The decision should be based on what your customers want. Think about the platforms your customers are most likely to use and already have downloaded.

3. Inform

Now that you’ve had a chance to decide which platform and method of virtual estimates is best for your company, it’s time to let your customers and clients in on your recent decision. Unless they know about it, they won’t know to utilize it.

There are many ways to do this. While none are more powerful than social media, you should also consider posting it on your service page, as well as in a blog post and email newsletter. Again, you’ll know which way is best when reaching out to your customers, so keep them in mind when preparing this. 

4. Follow-Up

Once you start informing customers about your recent decision, you’ll start to receive virtual appointments. Make sure you pencil those into your schedule just like any home visit you would normally do, the only difference being you don’t have to travel anywhere.

It’s also good practice to follow up with the customer after the call to give them a written estimate, which acts as a summary of what you discussed on the virtual appointment. It’s best to do this via email, that way you don’t have to bother them with another call.

Getting Virtual Estimates to Work for You

Offering virtual estimates does a lot for the business you’ve worked so hard to build and maintain throughout the years, but it’s also a great way for newer companies to gain trust and clout within their industry.

When customers learn you have virtual estimates -- especially when those estimates are free -- it does two major things for your company. First, it minimizes the amount of phone calls and emails you get. Second, it gives you a chance to set yourself apart from others.

It also limits the amount of house calls you need to make, reduces your risk of getting sick, and allows you to follow local or state guidelines.

If you’ve been struggling to get virtual estimates to work for your business, Consultants In-A-Box can help. We take great pride in helping companies find the most effective ways of keeping their business running strong through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you improve the way your business operates during these difficult times.

How to Bring New Customers to Your Online Business

One of the most challenging aspects of running an online business is finding a consistent and reliable flow of customers every single day. Every store is likely to see periods of growth, but they’re often met with a steep decline soon after.

For online business owners that want to defy the growing frustrations around customer acquisition, it’s important you change your mind set about what customer acquisition is. It’s not so much a goal or even an objective. Instead, it’s a process that must be respected and trusted.

It requires understanding more than just how many customers you have at any given time, but also how much money that customer is likely to spend when visiting your online store, how often they’re likely to return, and how much it’ll cost to maintain that relationship over time.

When it comes to customer acquisition, we have some tips that will help you find success -- whether you’re new to owning an online business or have been in the game for a while. Without further ado, let’s get started!

The Basics of Customer Acquisition

Before we get deeper into the depths of customer acquisition, let’s first make sure we’re all on the same page about what customer acquisition entails. In its essence, customer acquisition refers to the process of finding, developing, and nurturing customer relationships in a way that persuades them to support your business.

For the most part, business owners like to think of customer acquisition as if it’s a funnel. There are three parts of the funnel -- the top, the middle, and the bottom. Let’s take a closer look at each: 

1. The Top - this part of the funnel requires you to form leads from a wide target audience that consists of people that might be interested in your product or service, but that interest isn’t guaranteed. You’ll need to know your target audience, but it’s okay to not be too specific here.
2. The Middle - once you garner interest from potential customers, they’ll fall into the middle of the funnel. This is typically when they’ve added something to their cart or signed up for a newsletter on your site. These are the leads you need to start persuading and nurturing a relationship with.
3. The Bottom - this part of the funnel consists of potential customers that are ready to purchase a product or service with you. They’ve shown the interest, you’ve persuaded them, and all you have to do is close the deal.

Every business is going to have their own procedures and standards when dealing with each customer or lead throughout each process. For example, there are hundreds of different ways you can attract leads at the top of the funnel and they won’t all be feasible for your business. Instead, you’ll need to choose the one that works best for you.

How Much Does Customer Acquisition Cost?

Most business owners spend all day finding and interacting with potential customers, yet a majority of them have no idea how much it’s costing them to go through the customer acquisition funnel.

Enter the customer acquisition cost (CAC), a simple yet effective way to measure the cost of each new customer you bring on every month. In order to calculate this, divide your total cost of marketing for that month (or week, or year) by the total number of customers acquired during that month (or week, or year).

Once you determine the CAC, you can take it a step further and compare it to the average amount of money spent by each customer when they first visited. Ideally, this number will be greater than the CAC, which would mean you’re making a profit on that customer.

One of the few times it’s okay for the amount spent by the customer to fall below the CAC is if it’s highly likely for that customer to come back and spend more money at your business.

Don’t worry, there are certain tools that make it easy to track these numbers and actually do all the number-crunching for you automatically. Google Analytics and Shopify Reports are two of the most common tools used by online businesses today.

Having Difficulty Acquiring Customers Effectively?

When dealing with the customer acquisition funnel, many businesses struggle to make that initial contact with potential customers. This is imperative when you don’t have the proper strategies in place to attract them.

Let’s discuss some of the most prominent and effective customer acquisition strategies your business can benefit from. 

• Social Media Presence

One of the most powerful tools and strategies your business can implement when acquiring new potential customers is social media. It’s free (at its core) and is extremely fun when you use it to spread your message and core values.

With some companies boasting followers in the millions, there’s no telling what a stronger social media presence could mean for your company. It drives in organic traffic and it helps give others proof of your leadership in your industry.

Unfortunately, it’s also difficult to maintain, takes time to build a following, and the landscape for social media is always changing. The pros weigh the cons in most situations, though.

• Focus on SEO

If you like free strategies, here’s another one -- search engine optimization (SEO). This is the process of optimizing your website to make it easy for search engines to find your content. With the amount of purchases starting with a Google search these days, this is an important strategy to implement for any business with a website.

You’ll need to determine the keywords that best associate with your business and its customers, as well as blast those keywords strategically throughout the site. There are also a variety of other SEO strategies that could help you gain some respect with Google and improve your ranking in searches.

While it’s free and brings a good amount of organic traffic to your website, it isn’t always easy to implement and may require some assistance. It also takes time to see results and, of course, there's a lot of competition out there. 

• Traditional Advertising

Wile digital marketing has certainly become the focus for many businesses, that doesn’t mean forms of traditional advertising are dead. In fact, they’re still very much in-use today and can have a very strong impact on your ability to attract leads.

The great thing about traditional advertising is it comes in many forms and they range from small-scale campaigns (like print advertising and direct-mail advertising) to large-scale campaigns (like radio and television ads).

Traditional advertising is a great way to build customer trust and gain widespread exposure the old way. Unfortunately, it often costs a pretty penny and is difficult to track how well it’s working for your business. Either way, it’s a good option to explore when searching for more ways to gain leads.

• Introduce Referral Programs

There’s nothing better than having existing customers bring you new customers, it’s like the gift that keeps on giving. It’s effective because others are more likely to trust a referral from someone they know and there’s a limited up-front cost since the incentive is rewarded after the new customer is brought to the bottom of the funnel.

A referral program helps encourage repeat purchases, it increases exposure in areas where your customers already live, and it helps add some excitement when customers interact with your business. For a lack of better words, it gives them a reason to do your marketing for you.

Of course, it also means you won’t get to engage with that lead until they reach the middle of the funnel. You’ll have to act fast in persuading them before they lose interest.

• Utilize the Power of Emails

How often do you personally check your email every single day? For most people with a mobile device, this answer is likely by the hour -- if not more often. That means there’s a ton of opportunity to connect with potential customers via email.

Newsletters are one of the biggest ways of doing this. It allows you to be visual and creative with the content, opposed to the boring old text email we’re used to. Of course, this strategy only works if you have emails to connect with.

To collect emails, you need to ask for them. Your website and social media profiles are the two easiest ways to gain email leads. The best part is you get to keep those emails until they unsubscribe from the newsletter -- and let’s be honest, that rarely occurs.

Your lead generation list will continue to grow and you’ll always have a way of reaching out to potential customers. Eventually, it’ll be just as powerful as a popular social media page.

• Take Advantage of Influencers

Speaking of popular social media pages, you don’t always have to use your own followers to gain potential customers and leads. In fact, there are a wide variety of influencers on the internet that are prepared to market your product for you to their followers.

Since some of these influencers have hundreds of thousands and even millions of followers, this can open you up to a wide range of followers. As long as you choose your influencer wisely, those followers could hold a strong interest in your own company.

Influencers help with brand awareness and niche targeting, but it also only works if you have a budget or something to offer the influencer (free membership, free samples, etc.). It’s also difficult to track how well it’s working.

• Paid Ads Go a Long Way

The final strategy we’ll discuss when attracting customers to the top of your customer acquisition funnel is paid advertising. There are so many ways to advertise online when you have the budget to do so -- including social media ads, search engine ads, and even advertising your stuff on other websites.

When done properly, it can lead to a wide range of exposure on the internet and is pretty easy to target where the funds should go. At the same time, it can be rather expensive and there’s a steep learning curve when getting the most out of paid ads.

If you have the budget for it, it’s certainly worth a try -- especially if you have the right help in your corner.

Which Strategy Works Best for You?

With so many different strategies available to online business owners, it can be difficult to understand which one works best for you. You know your goal and you know you’re ready to do what needs to be done to achieve it, you just need that extra little push.

Don’t worry, we understand. At Consultants In-A-Box, we dedicate ourselves to making sure every business is implementing the right customer acquisition strategies to maximize their exposure and increase sales on a consistent basis.

If you need further assistance implementing these strategies or finding the one that will work best for you, contact us today. We can’t wait to discuss how we can help your business continue to grow and elevate it to heights you’ve always dreamed of.

Do More in Less Time With These Bots

Business owners are asked to do a lot and are often juggling multiple different responsibilities or roles within their business -- if not all of them. While this isn’t something you can avoid as an aspiring entrepreneur, it is something you can minimize with the help of bots.

Today, bots allow business owners the opportunity to automate some of the simple, basic, and time-consuming tasks that distance you from what’s truly important. They’re easy to integrate into your existing daily operations and are scalable to meet your growing business’ needs.

When most business owners hear the term ‘bots,’ they immediately think of chatbots -- which continue to rise in popularity. Sure, chatbots are certainly one type of bot that you can utilize on a daily basis, but it’s far from the only type of bot that exists today.

In fact, you already utilize bots without thinking about it. Whether you’re using the voice assistant on your phone or one of the many home automation systems available today, bots are already making a significant impact in your personal life.

Now it’s time to make that same impact with your professional life. You’d be surprised at all the ways bots can help you do more in less time -- that’s why we’re going to detail seven of the most popular bots being used with online stores today.

Let’s get started! 

1.   Shoppy Bot

How much time do you spend researching, crunching numbers, recording, and managing all the reports that tell you how well your business is doing for any period of time?

For most business owners, this takes up a lot of their time each month, but what if there was a way to have these reports automatically created and organized for you? Better yet, what if accessing these reports was as easy as sending a text message to a bot?

Enter Shoppy Bot.

All you have to do is ask this bot a question and it automatically does all the research needed. Before you know it, you’re given an answer so you can continue on with your day. No gimmicks, no effort, just answers. (Oh, and it’s free) 

2.   Simple Shop Automation

Simple Shop Automation is another free bot, but instead of searching reports and data, it performs administrative tasks to help you easily manage your online store.

The great thing about Simple Shop Automation is it is fully customizable to your business’ needs. You define a set amount of criteria beforehand, including the ability to set multiple conditions, and the bot does everything else for you.

For example, it can temporarily hide certain products from your online store when it’s sold out, alert you when you’re running low on product, and even fetch you daily sales reports. These are all tasks you would have to do yourself, but Simple Shop Automation saves you the time.

3.   Zapier

We like to call this bot a ‘bridge’ bot because it helps integrate apps and plugins that wouldn’t normally integrate by themselves. If you’re someone who’s constantly shifting from one app to the next, this is the bot for you.

When you connect two apps together, you can easily automate repetitive tasks without needing to know a bunch of code or needing a developer to help you. All you do is take an event from one app, tell Zapier what you want to happen once that event is triggered, and then this bot does the rest.

For those that don’t need a ‘bridge’ bot, it’s always good to keep this in the back of your idea list. Since the business world is constantly changing, you never know when you might need it. It has free options, but can also cost as much as $100 per month for the best experience. 

4.   ShopMessage

How often do you see customers leave your online store with items still in their cart? This is frustrating because you never truly know when you’re going to see that customer again -- if you’ll see them again.

With ShopMessage, you can -- at the very least -- urge your customers to return to their cart and complete their purchase or simply remind them that they’re still shopping. It’s the perfect way to turn an abandoned cart into a completed purchase.

It works through Facebook Messenger and automatically sends a customized and personalized message to the customer when they leave items in their cart. Doing this automatically means you don’t have to lift a finger -- just watch the sales grow.

While it does have premium options, there is a free option for new business owners looking to save money. And don’t worry, it details how much money it’s making you by tracking the purchases it completes. 

5.   NumbersBot

This is a bot that’s very similar to the ShoppyBot we discussed earlier. It specializes in making sure business owners have access to their online store’s data, insights, analytics, and reports whenever and wherever they need it.

One thing we like about NumbersBot is how well it adapts to your business. The more you interact with it, ask it questions, and go through your day-to-day business, the more useful and robust it becomes.

There’s a $9.99 per month fee attached to it, but it’s well worth the investment if you want to save time each and every day. 

6.   Social Share Bot

Most business owners are so busy with their day-to-day schedules that managing their social media accounts is impossible. Not only is it difficult to find the time to create content and post it for your customers to see, but it’s difficult to find the time to respond to them when they interact with you.

Failure to do either of these things puts your business at a disadvantage. Luckily, the Social Share Bot makes it easy to manage all your social media accounts in one place. It costs as low as $3 per month, but it also has a 5-day free trial if you’d like to give it a try before purchasing.

For those that aren’t very social media savvy, Social Share Bot is ready to serve you on a daily basis. 

7.   Kit Bot

The final bot we’re going to mention is called Kit. It’s a bot that specializes in online marketing, which is perfect for the business owners that aren’t too experienced in this sector -- much like the Social Share Bot.

Kit is prepared to do a lot for your business, including social media ads, sending emails to customers, creating and monitoring discount codes, and so much more. It’s free if you have a Shopify store and has in-app purchases to enhance your experience with it.

The great thing about the seven bots we mentioned above is that you can use a combination of them to get the most out of your time-saving mission. If you need help navigating these bots or implementing them into your day-to-day operations, contact Consultants In-A-Box today.

We’re excited to help you do more in less time, that way you can effectively grow your business.

Creating the Best Employee Satisfaction Survey

When’s the last time you wondered whether or not your employees are happy with their job? If it’s been a while -- or if you’ve never truly thought about it -- then there’s never been a better opportunity than right now.

In fact, this is something you must do regularly if you want to ensure your office or store promotes a comfortable and happy environment for your employees. Failure to do so results in a lack of productivity, lack of motivation, and overall lack of fulfillment from your employees.

You might be asking yourself, “How do I find out whether or not my employees are happy?” This is a common question we receive often and there’s one answer we give every single time -- an employee satisfaction survey.

It’s similar to the survey you send out to your customers, except this time it’ll be catered to your employees.

Finding Success With an Employee Satisfaction Survey

An employee satisfaction survey reveals a lot about how your employees feel about their job, their role with the company, the rest of the staff, the managers, the policies, and other ways they feel the business can do a better job at meeting standards. It’s necessary when growing and improving your company.

In fact, an employee satisfaction survey should be administered at least once per year. If your company has a high turnover rate, it might be best to do it more frequently -- of course, you’ll want to find the root of the problem as well. The survey will help, but it’ll only be the first step.

If you want the best results, try handing out an employee satisfaction survey every three months. Make it a part of your quarterly process and let your employees know to expect it. You can incentivize honest answers by eliminating the need to place a name at the top of the survey.

For those that are new to the employee satisfaction survey, we’re going to outline some of the most prominent questions you should consider adding to your survey. Including these will ensure you get as much insight as possible when collecting answers from employees. 

• Do you feel you’re paid enough for the work we ask you to do?

One of the main reasons your employees show up to work everyday is because they need the paycheck to support themselves and their families. When they don’t feel they’re being paid enough, they’re bound to start searching for a job that pays better.

• Do you feel heard when speaking with management?

When employees speak to upper management and even executives, they want to know their opinions or observations are being heard. You’d be surprised at how many great ideas come from lower-level employees -- all you have to do is listen once in a while.

• Do you feel like the work you do is valuable to the overall vision of the company?

Every business has goals they want to accomplish, a vision they want to bring to life, and a reputation to uphold. As you continue to add employees to your team, it’s important to make sure each position is designed to contribute to that end goal -- otherwise your employees will feel like their effort doesn’t matter.

• Are you happy with the potential to grow with this company?

Employees don’t want to jump from one job to the next their entire life. They want stability and sustainability just as much as any business owner. The problem is most businesses don’t encourage growth within the company.

Instead of focusing on outside hires all the time, see if there are any opportunities to promote existing employees first.

• Would you say management invests enough time and energy into the employees here?

It’s important for management to listen to their employees, but it shouldn’t stop there. Management needs to turn that into action and show the employees that their ideas and thoughts matter. It’s easy to sit down and lend an ear, but it’s a different story when you start taking action.

• Are you given all the tools and resources needed to do your job well? 

In order for employees to do their job correctly, effectively, and efficiently, they need the proper tools and resources made available to them whenever and wherever. The best way to determine what those tools and resources are is to ask the employee. In fact, it’s the only way to determine it, so don’t neglect it!

• How likely are you to search for a new job in the near future?

Anytime your employees give you their two-weeks notice, it stings a little -- especially when they’ve been good to your company since being hired. This might be a difficult question to ask and a difficult one to answer, but it’ll often change the narrative in the office and give you an opportunity to make things better.

• Are you happy with the work you do for this company?

One of the questions earlier talked about whether the employee feels their role is valuable to the vision of the company. This question is a little different because it’s designed to determine whether or not employees are doing the right work.

It’s important that they not only feel like they’re contributing, but that they’re happy in the way they’re contributing. You’d be surprised by how many employees in your company would perform better if they had a different role.

• What do you have to say about the culture we’ve created here?

Whether you were trying to create one or not, every company has a culture that defines its core values, principles, and behavior. This culture is important because it’s what attracts employees and incentivizes them to stay with the company long-term. If you haven’t been monitoring the culture within your company, now’s the best time to start.

• Is the work you do challenging or difficult at all throughout the day?

This question could be paired with the tools and resources question. It helps identify which departments and which positions are having the most difficulty doing their job effectively.

You’ll want to ask both questions because some employees might find their job difficult, but not know what would make it easier. They might feel they have the right tools and resources, yet still find it difficult.

• How is your relationship with your coworkers?

Coworkers are asked to spend a lot of time together. Sometimes, they see each other more than they see their own families. With that being said, you want to make sure every employee that works for you is comfortable with each other. It’ll also help strengthen the culture with your company.

• Do you ever feel pressured while working?

When employees are pressured or stressed over things that could’ve been prevented, it takes away from the quality of their work and the satisfaction they have when working for you. It’s best to promote a stress-free environment, but it’s also important to make sure employees have what they need to calm down when stress arrives.

• How well do you think our company adapts to change?

There’s nothing stable about business. It’s constantly changing and business owners are constantly being asked to change with it. Those that fail to institute this change end up falling behind their competition and underachieving the goals they set for themselves. If you want stability, be prepared to change.

When you include the questions listed above in your next employee satisfaction survey, you’ll receive the answers you need to continue improving your company -- from top to bottom. You’ll know the areas that need to be addressed, but you’ll also know where your company’s strengths are.

If you need further help instituting an effective employee satisfaction survey, contact the professionals at Consultants In-A-Box today. We help businesses find room for improvement and can’t wait to do the same for you and your business!

Ways to Earn Trust When Your Online Business is New

If there’s one thing all new business owners face when attempting to grow their customer base, it’s the lack of trust and lack of track record. It can be difficult to gain trust with customers that know nothing about who you are, what you do, and how passionate you are about your product.

That leaves us with the burning question on every new business owner’s mind, “How do I gain customer trust when I haven’t earned any reviews for them to go off of?”

Don’t worry, you’re not alone when asking this question. In fact, it’s something most business owners are faced with -- especially since it’s difficult to gain customer trust when you don’t have any customers.

That’s why we’re going to discuss nine of our favorite ways to earn trust with potential customers before they purchase your product. What you’ll get in return is interested buyers ready to make that purchase.

Let’s get started! 

1.   Find the Errors

If you want to build trust with potential customers that don’t know much about your brand, then you have to take a nice, long look at your website to determine whether or not it meets your customers’ standards.

Find the errors, fix them, and search for ways to improve it top-to-bottom. And before you ask, yes those grammar mistakes and punctuation errors do matter.

This includes making sure the website and shop are easy to navigate, making sure your homepage clearly states what your business does, and ensuring you give the customer as much information as possible.

To ensure everything is working properly, go through your site as if you’re a customer and experience it how they would experience it. You can also have your friends and family do the same to get their opinion of it. 

2.   Take Advantage of FAQs

Having a page dedicated to frequently asked questions is an extremely good practice when building a trustworthy website. There’s a reason why these questions get asked frequently and it’s because they’re the questions your customers are dying to get answers to.

A FAQ page does several things for your business and its customers. It informs the customer about who you are, what you do, and how you do it, as well as giving you an opportunity to display your expertise and establish yourself as a leader in your industry.

Finally, they give you a chance to limit the amount of inquiries that get flooded into your email inbox and phone support lines. This means a more streamlined process for you and the customer, which always leads to more trust when first starting out.

Don’t forget to include specific information about your company that wasn’t a good fit for the About page, information about products you sell, your return policy, shipping information, licenses or certifications, and anything else that might help the customer learn more about your business. 

3.   Hand Out Samples

When you’re truly having a difficult time grabbing the attention of customers and getting them interested enough to buy your products, it might be time to consider handing out free samples to a select few customers. Not only does this gauge interest, but it gets people using the product.

After all, who wouldn’t try something that’s free?

It’s a price you’ll have to pay in the beginning, but it can pay off dramatically when done right. You’ll not only gain positive reviews and repeat customers when they try the sample, but you’ll give others more reason to buy the real product when they miss out on the sample.

Here are some ideas you can try when handing out samples to potential customers: 

• Use the power of a sample to request a review, testimonial, or survey from potential customers.
• Send a sample to a social media influencer related to your industry and have them market the product on their page.
• Do it the old-fashioned way and set up shop at a convention or art show and hand out samples there. Any event that’s related to your industry will work.

Since there will be an up-front cost to doing this, you’ll want to be strategic when preparing to hand out the samples. Don’t give them away like candy on Halloween. Instead, be precise about who gets one and make sure it also benefits you in some way. 

4.   Accurate, Yet Catchy Descriptions

You’d be surprised at how many online stores fail to utilize the product description when marketing their products. In fact, many business owners don’t write a product description at all.

If you want your customers to feel more comfortable when shopping for your products and browsing through your store, you need to make sure your product descriptions are detailed, creative, catchy, and specific.

You should be listing the measurements of the product, what they receive (if it comes in a box), how much it weighs, any disclaimers, warranty information, and ways the customer can enhance the product. Of course, images and video certainly help add to the experience for the customer. 

5.   Customer Service & Support

When you open your online store, you’ll likely have a lot of people that visit your store and immediately have questions. While most of these questions can easily be listed in a FAQ section on your website, that doesn’t always mean the customer sees it.

With that being said, it’s important to make yourself as available as possible to your customers. When they have a question, comment, or concern, you need to accommodate them immediately. Failing to do so could push them away and create a negative experience between you and the customer -- something they’ll tell their friends and family about.

There are two things you need to pay attention to here -- time and attitude. The longer you make customers wait, the more time you give them to find what they’re looking for elsewhere. Having a bad attitude with the customer won’t help the situation, either.

To solve this, many businesses are utilizing live chat and support chatbots that make itself available 24/7. 

6.   Return Policies

Building trust with customers that have yet to purchase your product or try your service is difficult, but offering a return policy that makes it easy for the customer is one of the best things you can do to soften the investment they’re making.

When they know they can return it if it’s not what they were expecting, they feel much more comfortable and almost view it as a sample because there’s no risk involved on their end. In addition to that, you gain customer insight when they tell you why they’re returning the product.

Since offering a return policy can become expensive for new businesses, you can always make the policy exclusive to loyalty members -- that way you also incentivize them to sign up with your loyalty program.

Once you have the return policy made up, make sure you post it everywhere for the customer to see. On product pages, the about page, contact page, FAQ page, and even the homepage of your site. Social media is another great tool for letting customers know. 

7.   Make Security a Priority

We live in a digital world and with that, we need to change the way we think. For those with brick-and-mortar shops, you understand how important it is to keep your customers safe when they enter through your doors -- it helps build trust with the customer.

The same thing needs to be done with online stores. With privacy being a huge concern on the internet and customer’s identity at stake, they need to feel safe when they visit your website. Making sure you use an HTTPS website, as well as use apps and plugins to further the security of your website is essential.

You can also offer multiple payment options so customers get to choose their preferred method. You should also have a dedicated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy page located on your website. 

8.   Content Is King -- Still

While many business owners have given up on content, it continues to be one of the single-most beneficial tools your business has on the internet today. It shows that your business is active, it gives the customers more value, and establishes yourself as a leader in your industry.

Building trust with content is extremely easy when you know what your customer wants and how to get it to them. Blogs are very popular today because it gives brands a chance to display their voice, vision, and expertise in a unique way.

Your content on social media is important too. Making sure you not only give the customers the content they need, but also interact with them and spark conversations to keep the connecting going is crucial to building trust with new customers.

Don’t give up on content. In fact, double it or even triple it. Your customers will notice, you’ll start to build an online presence, and you’ll start to see the customers flowing in. 

9.   Be Yourself!

When’s the last time you interacted with a company and felt like you were talking to a robot the whole time? This happens often in business today and it’s as unfortunate as it is ineffective.

Customers like doing business with real people. They want to feel heard, they want to know they’re being thought of, and they want to feel like they’re being helped. Those are three things most customers don’t get today.

You can change that. Don’t be scared to be yourself and let your customers see the personality or character in your business. Be human -- it’s what the customers want and it’s what your business needs.

Make your company feel real and your customers will reward you. They’ll connect with you and support your business through thick and thin.

If you need further assistance with building customer trust, don’t panic. Our team at Consultants In-A-Box is prepared to help you find success when getting your business started. Contact us today to discuss how we can help your business grow!

Here’s How Testimonials Help Boost Your Sales

Customer behavior is one of the many things in business that are always changing. Especially in today’s digital world, which presents a wide range of new opportunities every year, the way your customers shop is bound to be different from one year to the next.

Today, there’s nothing more important than testimonials from past customers. Positive ones help attract new customers and build a sense of customer loyalty, while negative ones are known to drive those customers away.

That’s why it’s important to collect, respond to, nurture, and monitor your customer reviews and testimonials regularly to ensure you’re meeting your customer’s needs.

Don’t worry, we understand this is something most business owners aren’t keen on. We’re going to run through everything you need to know about testimonials -- including how to use them, how to get them, how to display them, and how to find success with them. 

Are Testimonials Worth the Hassle?

Customers today are extremely interested in the experiences other customers had when interacting with your business. In fact, 90% of consumers say online reviews from other customers help influence their decisions when shopping.

The thing about testimonials is it gives the customer a sense of confidence before purchasing an item or signing up for a service. They have a better idea of what to expect, which is important because a lot of businesses go out of their way to make their product seem better than it really is.

Testimonials help build trust with customers before they commit to your product, which heavily increases conversions and sales. These conversions become even more beneficial to your business when the testimonial is coming from someone famous, well-known, or popular in your industry.

As long as the testimonial is authentic, customers are going to appreciate it and utilize it every time -- and this is proven. One study by Econsultancy discovered that testimonials increase the likelihood of a purchase by more than 60% and even increase sales by nearly 20%.

Another study by Reevoo proved that having 50+ testimonials can increase nearly 5% of your sales and a study by Brightlocal found that 88% of people trust online reviews as much as reviews from friends and family.

The numbers don’t lie -- testimonials work and are necessary for any business.

Receiving Testimonials From Customers

One of the best ways to get testimonials from your customers is by asking them -- after all, that’s the key to getting most things in business. If you need numbers to prove this, the same study by Brightlocal we mentioned earlier also found that 68% of customers leave a testimonial when asked.

Since there are so many ways to initiate this, we’re going to detail some of the most popular and effective ways: 

1.    Utilizing Surveys

Customer surveys are such an easy way to get a feel for how your business is perceived by others. It’s your chance to group together a wide range of questions that require a yes/no answer or a rating.

You can ask questions that describe their use of the product or service, questions about their demographic, questions about their satisfaction, and even questions that require a typed-out answer. Some popular questions to include are: 

• How often did you use the product or service?
• What did you like most about the product or service?
• What is your age, gender, employment status, and marital status?
• How satisfied are you with this product on a scale of 1-10?
• If you could change anything about the product or service, what would you change?
• Will you be using this product or service again in the future?

A survey is versatile and can be used to gain valuable insight and data about your customers, while also giving you valuable content to showcase online -- that way other customers can read their answers.

2.    Automating Emails

Emails are a great way to ask for testimonials. They can be used to send out the survey, but they can also be used to simply ask for a written testimonial about their experience with your product or service.

With the way technology is built in your favor, you can even automate these emails to be sent to the customer a week after receiving the product or service. This not only gives them a chance to try the product first, but it gives them a reminder to tell you what they thought of it.

Of course, you’ll want to make it worth their while by offering some type of incentive for completing the survey or writing the testimonial. It can even be something as simple as a one-time drawing where there’s only one winner -- don’t be afraid to get creative! 

3.    Integrate Apps

There are also a wide range of apps out there designed to help you collect and display testimonials or reviews. For example, you can use Yotpo, Stamped.io, Loox, or Shopify’s own Product Review app to integrate testimonials directly on your Shopify site.

You can also use apps like Yelp and Google to ask customers for reviews. It’s simple to do and there are already a wide range of people doing it -- sometimes they just need that extra push! 

Should You Ask Anyone for a Testimonial?

To be fair, you should always leave the door open for anyone to leave a review or testimonial for your business. Even the negative ones give you an opportunity to grow and become better.

At the same time, you also want to make sure you have as many positive reviews as possible. That’s why you have to know where to go for that positive review and more important, how to get it!

First, you’re going to want to locate your most loyal customers. These are the customers you see frequently, the customers who spend the most money, and the customers that have been with you the longest. You can label them your MVS -- Most Valuable Shoppers.

Once you’ve asked them for a testimonial, you can start to venture out to other areas. Social media is a great place to start because a majority of your customers are already on there. You can easily search hashtags and even look at your own messages or replies.

Stay on the lookout for social media followers that have already posted something positive about your product. Repost their shoutout and respond to them!

Reach out to them and thank them for using your product. That’s when you can kindly slip in, “Would you mind leaving us a testimonial of your experience with us so far?”

Lastly, you can use what’s called a Net Promoter Score survey. This is where you send out an initial survey that asks, “Would you recommend this product or service to someone you know?” Those that answer positively should be reached out to for a follow-up survey or reached out to for a testimonial. 

What Should Testimonials Contain?

While it’s important to know how to ask and who to ask for a testimonial, you also have to know what to ask. As much as you want hundreds of reviews and testimonials, you don’t necessarily want them to to all be, “Great product!” or “Love it!”

The truth is, those don’t provide other customers with any valuable information and often come across as spam or fake.

The key when avoiding this is to search for customers willing to give specific, clear, and detailed reviews of your product or service. This doesn’t need to be hundreds of words, but it should be more than the generic reviews you’re used to getting.

In order to encourage more specific and detailed reviews from your customers, consider the following: 

• Ask for photos or videos from the customer to provide further supporting material for other customers.
• Be honest and be specific with them as far as what you’re looking for in your testimonial.
• Give them examples of other reviews that you thought resembled what you wanted in a testimonial.
• If there are any key words you want the customer to mention in their testimonial, try using them in your own verbage to inspire the customer.
• Send them a history of products they bought or services they utilized.

At the end of the day, you want to make sure the customer knows you want descriptive testimonials. If you have to, don’t be afraid to tell them you’ll display their testimonial on your website if they write a glowing review.

You Have the Testimonial, Now What?

There are so many different places you can display your testimonials for others to see. Making sure you display them in the right places is essential to making sure they produce the results you were hoping for when you collected them.

Here are some of the most popular and effective places to showcase them: 

1. Social Media - a simple retweet of a customer’s testimonial or positive review can go a long way because all your followers will see it. You can also shout out customers yourself on social media, they’ll appreciate the 15 minutes of fame.
2. Testimonial Page - having a page on your website dedicated to displaying testimonials is a great way to hold all your testimonials in one place.
3. Product/Service Page - if you have testimonials about certain products or services, displaying them on their corresponding product or service page can help drive conversions.
4. Case Studies - when you build a case study, you should always include testimonials from clients in that industry.

Once you can figure out where to display them and how to get other customers to read them, you’ll start to see the testimonials take effect on your business. Soon enough, you’ll see your sales start to increase and you’ll even start to see more testimonials come in! 

Need Extra Help With Testimonials?

Asking, collecting, monitoring, managing, nurturing, and showcasing testimonials to potential customers is extremely beneficial to the future of your business. At the same time, it’s extremely time-consuming and something not every business owner has the time to do. 

You might be wondering if it’s worth it to outsource this process to a professional. Like anything else, it comes with its own set of pros and cons. The pros, for instance, include having someone with experience lead the way, freeing up your time to focus on what’s most important, and increasing the amount of testimonials you receive on a monthly basis.

On the other hand, the cons include having to do it yourself, risking not having enough time to do it properly or effectively, and a loss of quality.

Whether you want to find a professional, search for a software program to help, or do it all yourself, the important thing is that you’re doing it. Eventually, you’ll start to see results and learn that it was all worth it.

If you need help, contact Consultants In-A-Box today. We can’t wait to assist you with the growth of your business and help you get more quality reviews.