What is the single biggest mistake that most businesses make?

If I had to give one simple answer to this question I would have to say communication is the biggest weakness of many, if not most businesses. It frustrates me no end because it really is such an easy issue to remedy.

A business owner can find a pile of money to set up a business, rent premises, fit it out, find staff, advertise, build a website and do everything else right to get customers knocking down the door - and then they bugger it up by failing to deliver when it comes to communication.

They take forever to respond to a customer enquiry, promise to get back to you and never do, fail to take the right instructions or orders, make you chase them day after day and week after week, or even worse, they simply ignore you.

We have all experienced this frustration time and time again and around the world, the biggest consumer complaint is always around a lack of communication.

There is little doubt that the business world, and the small business world in particular is changing dramatically. As customers we have choice when it comes to buying anything and the amount of choice is extraordinary. We don't need to accept second best anymore, not should we or will we.

This is going to be a shock for many business owners who will wake up one morning to an empty shop and a very quiet phone because they have treated their customers badly, through lousy communication (and taking them for granted). Put simply, their customers finally got sick of being ignored and treated badly so they went elsewhere.

Now is the time to really service our customers. Follow up and deliver on our promises. If there is a problem call them, don't make them chase you. Listen to what they want and most importantly make sure you give it to them.

Look at response times to emails - taking a week to get back to a customer is not OK. Using the excuse that you are busy is not what a customer wants to hear - because this is implying that your time is more valuable than their time.

From my experience most people who are poor at communicating are generally disorganised, so if this applies to you, get organised.

Generally we put a lot of time, money and effort into getting new customers but very little if anything to keeping them. Anyone who wants their business to not just survive but to actually grow stronger in the years ahead needs to sit down and have a good long look at how they communicate with their customers.

Find ways to improve response times, make follow up a must do activity within your business, listen to what your customers are saying and build a reputation for being a business that delivers what it promises and one that communicates with its customers.

To me this is a real opportunity for any business owner to not only strengthen the business they already have, but to increase word of mouth referral. Quality communication leads to loyalty. We are in a time where surely we want as many loyal customers as we can get? And best of all the cost is zero.

My view is that for a business to thrive in the coming years, they need to master the art of communication. Do this and you will have good times, ignore this and your days are numbered. This applies to every business, online and bricks and mortar, across every industry and in every country.

Source: https://www.thesbhub.com.au