The measure of a good business is not only in what the business promises it will deliver to its clients. Customers are also interested in what you WON’T do.
As a customer approaching a new business, there is a level of fear and trepidation in connection with the experience. This is why online review sites have become so popular. The prospective customer now has better means of research at his fingertips than ever before.
When you think about it, the customer is not afraid of what you WILL do, because he is in control of that side of the equation. They have come across you because they have a need, which he or she has defined, and what they expect is that you will meet that need. They can assess whether you are able to do so, and choose to buy or not.
A more scary prospect for the customer is that in meeting with you, you might do something ELSE which they don’t want and over which they have no control.
The matter of TRUST is the driver here, and the customer will not have approached you in the first place unless they had a level of trust that you could deliver what they wanted. A useful tool to assist in cementing an ongoing relationship, a repeat customer, is to reassure them of the things that you WON’T do (of course you need to make the promise and stick to it). An example follows for our own business.
What We Won’t Do
- We won’t try to sell you anything that you don’t want to buy.
High pressure sales is not in our nature
- We won’t make your world more complex than it needs to be.
Whilst higher complexity might be better for us, it is rarely better for you
- We won’t provide you with “hot” investment tips
In our world investing is not punting
- We won’t treat you like a number
Our business is driven by relationships not statistics
- We won’t hide the amount that you pay us
A fair fee agreed in advance, and reported back to you annually is the minimum standard for us
- We won’t put our own interests before yours
We believed in the “Best Interests Duty” long before an attempt was made to enshrine it in law (for more see here)
- We won’t accept remuneration for recommending a product to you
It is our job to ensure that products recommended (if any) are fit for purpose in helping you to meet your goals.
You get the idea…..
By explicitly stating what you won’t do (and sticking to it) some of the fear that the prospective customer has in entering into a relationship with you might be put to rest. This is the sort of thing they will likely be looking for when they are considering contacting you in the first place. Depending on the depth of the research that they do, finding a statement like this on your website could make the difference.
So what won’t you do in your business? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
I’d love to be part of your success
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