You probably aren’t looking for tips on driving business and dollars away, right? But, could you be doing it and not even realizing it? The folks at Inc.com have put together a handy list of five things that are sure-fire ways to lose business. Here’s our review for your review, to give yourself a little check-up:
1) Making customers wait too long.
This may seem obvious and most customers probably know that some wait time can’t be avoided, depending on the business, product, time-of-day, etc. But if a customer has to wait longer than she thinks she should, or others are served ahead of her, or there seems to be no end in sight, that’s when she’ll bolt.
2) Delivering only the basics
Yep, you have to provide customers what they ordered, but if you never go beyond just what is expected, a customer may just leave you because someone else has added a bell here, a whistle there. One example is a “no questions asked” return policy. What can you do above and beyond the call?
3) Being hard to contact
If I am a customer and I can’t reach you, I’m never going to try again. Enough said. This means that you cannot depend on your website to answer each and every question a customer has, or that a customer will event WANT to use your website at all.
4) Sell constantly
You cannot just want to lure that next customer into buying something. You have to answer his questions and provide what he needs without a hard sell. 64 percent of people say they’ve left a possible transaction when a salesperson became overly aggressive.
5) Keep secrets
If a customer feels like you know something about the product or company, yet you’re not telling, you’ll likely not get that customer’s business. Be open and honest, even beyond the point that might be expected.
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