BUILDING A SMALL BUSINESS REPUTATION THAT MATTERS

Transcription

1 BUILDING A SMALL BUSINESS REPUTATION THAT MATTERS Market credibility has become vital in an era when even a single online critique can threaten sales or partnerships. To establish and maintain credibility, small businesses should

2 INTRODUCTION Often misunderstood, market credibility is not the same as brand recognition. Instead, it is the businesses, an effective credibility strategy starts with reciprocity with all stakeholders. A stakeholder is any person, group, or organization that can affect or be affected by the organization s actions, objectives, and policies. The following is a list of the most common stakeholders with which every small business should try to build credibility: Customers Government Agencies Community Creditors Vendors Employees Owners The relationship between a company and all of its stakeholders should be carefully managed For this reason, building credibility should be a stated business goal of a company s overall and expertise. 2

3 OFFLINE TRUST Business Credibility is built from the ground-up which means starting with those areas that can business credibility: ESTABLISH BUSINESS CREDIT: Any business that has had to raise working capital or fund growth realizes the importance of establishing business credit. Before providing loans or other sources of debt capital, lenders require small business owners to demonstrate their willingness and ability to repay credit obli- - termination on processing loans. For this reason, savvy business owners establish and manage their business credit to ensure access to capital. Establishing business credit starts by obtaining a D&B D-U-N-S Number. Many organizations Wal-Mart and the U.S. government among them will only do business with companies that have a D-U-N-S Number. USE TRADE REFERENCES TO YOUR ADVANTAGE: Maintaining business credit has always been an important part of running a small business and involves, among other things, building trust with creditors. Creditors themselves do not report back to the credit agencies regarding the disposition of their accounts with you or other borrowers, and transactions are usually reported only when there are potential issues with the account. Currently, Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. is the only credit reporting agency that accepts trade references directly from businesses. Once verito a company s credit report. For example, the D&B PAYDEX Score is a unique dollar-weighted numerical indicator of how - ous vendors. The credit report and the corresponding D&B scores give small business owners Another reason to report transactions is that business credit is not protected like personal credit. Although the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives individuals the ability to dispute the inaccuracies in their personal credit reports, it does not apply to business credit. For this reason business PAY BILLS IN AN ANTICIPATORY PATTERN: Many businesses have found that it is best to use credit lines for special situations instead of to support current operations. However, companies with the highest PAYDEX and credit scores are not those that pay their bills on time but those that pay in an anticipatory pattern, which means paying their bills before the invoice is sent. Although not always easy to do especially during shaky economic times paying bills ahead of time helps ensure high credit scores. A superior credit score enhances overall credibility, while an inferior one can devastate a vendors and lenders for insight into how it will deal with obligations to other business entities. 3

4 ONLINE TRUST The advent of electronic purchasing and the need to keep customer information safe has - ily in the brick-and-mortar world, building credibility and communicating with external stakeholders will require most small businesses to build a comprehensive online presence. LET VISITORS KNOW YOU. This starts with the bare minimum: publish your full business address (not a P.O. Box), phone number and other ways to contact you. Also, provide information about your business history; this will increase the air of legitimacy surrounding your business. In the About Us section of your website, identify people that are responsible for running your business and responding to inquiries. Provide users with a brief biography of each key player. Visitors thinking of doing business with your company are more comfortable when they know who they are dealing with and that they can send enquiries anytime they want. But this may not be enough. More and more, prospective partners are searching for informashould be dealt with as soon as possible. BE CONSISTENT AND TRANSPARENT. Make sure that everything that is communicated or created for public consumption is done in a consistent manner. All products or services should meet the standards that you promote, and consistently meet or beat customer value expectations. A trustworthy organization is one 4

5 that is stable and does all its business dealings above board, because it has nothing to hide from the marketplace. As your company operates in the marketplace over time, a record of company policy is amassed in publicly available internet archives. Substantial policy changes should be included, favorably shaping the evolving online story of your company. LIMIT EXTRANEOUS CONTENT. Too much irrelevant content especially too many third party advertisements and promoanything, contain offers on their own page. It depends on the objectives of the site, but in the end it is likely not worth it. Display third party seals online. Studies have shown that displaying reputable seals on your more likely to purchase. Small businesses can amass proximate legitimacy by building relation- Better Business Bureau. Advertise security and privacy practices. Visitors are very wary about providing personal and to your customers. Typically, a privacy policy will point out how website owners will use a visi- - SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption technology and other security protocols designed to ensure safety and privacy. D&B Credibility Review Call Now to Speak to a Business Consultant - (855)

6 EXPERTISE EVERYWHERE The expertise component of credibility is nothing groundbreaking. These are common-sense business practices, but the basics of good business have become more important when those who come in contact with company stakeholders can anonymously question the company s expertise. TRAIN EMPLOYEES WELL: Every employee is a marketing and sales ambassador. It s been said many times before, but in the era of anonymous online reviews it s never been more valid. When employees are well-trained, they are better able to do their jobs, something easily observed by Conversely, poorly trained employees have a negative effect on how consumers think about a company and its products. Since they interact with other stakeholders such as customers and vendors, it is vital to the company s market reputation to have a welltrained, expect workforce. TREAT EMPLOYEES FAIRLY: Since employees are ambassadors, they are arguably the most important set of stakeholders with whom to build trust. Traditionally it has been good business to pay staff members fairly and treat them with respect. But again, with the protected anonymity of online reviews, it s even more important to bring them into alignment with your company s vision. To keep employees invested, they should be treated as experts in their positions. Their ideas and concerns should be heard and acted upon, and, more importantly, their suggestions for innovation encouraged. A company has little chance of building trust with customers if it continue to serve as credibility ambassadors even after they ve moved on. STAY ON TOP OF NEW AND ESTABLISHED BUSINESS STANDARDS: enhance or damage a business market reputation or, in a worst case scenario, put lucrative To ensure that the business stays in high regard (and that this sentiment is conveyed to the market) owners should build relationships with these agencies and make sure that the business conforms to any of their business standards or regulations. Trade groups can also offer resources to help navigate the complicated web of regulatory standards. 6

7 CONCLUSION Unfortunately, business credibility is not a plateau that can be attained. Instead, credibility is a company s evolving market reputation deserved and undeserved in any combination that requires vigilant monitoring and management. In order to steer that reputation in a direction integral part of a company s overall business plan. As a stated business goal, the strategies executed to build credibility should have the appro- Building and monitoring business credit Executing an extensive and optimized online presence Reviewing human resource plans the business standing in the marketplace, trust must be built with stakeholders before it can be established and maintained with customers. Although building credibility with such a diverse set of individuals and businesses may seem like an overwhelming task, myriad resources can be accessed to aide small business owners in sustaining market credibility. Companies like Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp. were established to help small business owners implement many aspects of their corporate credibility strategy with products like D&B Self Monitor, which helps owners manage their business credit. The D&B product lines are designed to support a company s ongoing reputation management strategy by building credibility and opportunity, two factors that will ultimately drive sales. D&B CREDIBILITY REVIEW Call Now to Speak to a Business Consultant (855)

8 D&B CREDIBILITY REVIEW Call Now to Speak to a Business Consultant (855)