Making Your Employees Feel Comfortable

No business, even a solid, well-established one, is immune to changes in the market place that affect the sale of the product or service they provide. When this happens, some businesses will choose to adopt a wait-and-see approach and hope for the best. Others will take a moment to assess what went wrong and find ways to correct those problems. These proactive businesses are the ones who will ultimately regain lost profits and become even stronger as they rebuild. If your business is being bashed by unexpected changes in your market place, these tips will help you find the problem, address it proactively and then charge forward to reclaim your place at the top.

Start With Your Strengths

Loyal clients and customers are the real heart of any successful business. If you want to add renewed vigor to your business, reach out to your long-time customers and clients first and ask them for referrals from their friends, family members and circle of influence. Develop a plan to market to these clients and customers in a way that makes them feel special, such as establishing a preferred client program that provides them with a discount or some sort of perk as a reward for their continued loyalty. 

Explore the Problems 

Since no problem is truly repairable until you understand why it occurred, consider contacting your current customer base, as well as those who may have moved on and ask them to fill out a brief, but honest survey about your business. Include questions that will allow them to spell out what they like and what they do not like about your business, service or product and then use those answers to as a basis to make improvements. 

Become More Modern

If your business has been around more than a few years, it may have lost its edge or appear stale alongside newer competitors. To counteract this, consider giving your marketing materials, including your web presence, business cards and even your company vehicles a makeover to help them appear more appealing and increase recognition in your local market. 

Embrace the Power of Social Media 

Social media campaigns offer one of the most affordable ways for companies to really make a splash in their market place. Here are a few key ways to get information about your business shared by both existing and potential customers. 

• create a quality web site that offers timely information about your company and include something to make people want to bookmark the site and return to it often, such current news, contests or cartoons, or helpful information such as weather or school news 
• use the theme, colors and logo from the website to create business cards, signage and colorful wraps for company vehicles and make sure to include your social media handles and web address on all of them
• create a presence on all the major social media sites and post interesting industry news, pictures and share-quality information several times each week

Make Changes to Attract New Clients and Customers 

Look around your business and determine what updates or changes you can make to help attract new customers and clients. Here are few ideas to consider: 

• Is the front of your business and your parking area convenient, clean and attractive? 
• Do you have appropriate ramps and rails to make older or disabled clients feel comfortable?
• Is your waiting area clean, comfortable and well stocked with cool drinks or coffee for guests?

Arrange to Serve Potential Customers Who Are Not Fluent In English

If your business cannot provide translation services for clients and customers who are not fluent in English, you may be losing out on a major segment of business. Professional translation services can assist you with both verbal and written translation services that will be easy to navigate for both you and your potential clients.