5 Ways to Make Doing Business With You a Snap

In this competitive climate, companies have to be constantly mindful of the most important factor — the client. You’ll want to know who your target audience is and what they want. You need to provide superior products and/or services at competitive price points. And you must make doing business with you a snap. 

Why is convenience so critical to the success of your company? Because many people already feel stressed out in their lives. They simply don’t have the time or inclination to do a ton of work to give you their business. Instead, they’ll just move on to your more convenient competitor. To help avoid this fate, employ these five strategies to make it easy for clients to work with you. 

1. Streamline Onboarding Paperwork

For many businesses, onboarding paperwork is a must — but for new clients, it’s at best a necessary evil. Contracts need to be signed, sure, but it’s annoying to have to travel to your office to do so. Waiting for docs to come in the mail and then having to sign and return them isn’t much better. You run the risk of the client neglecting to sign necessary documents or your staff forgetting to send them in the first place. 

Make it easier for your clients to complete onboarding paperwork by enabling them to sign documents online. So many people conduct their business on their phones now. You can capitalize on this reality by offering to send documents through a secure app. Clients can then sign and submit the docs in an instant. Your document signature solution can also send reminders and updates, saving your clients time and mental energy.

2. Maintain an Easy-to-Use, Mobile-Friendly Website

Plenty of businesses still have websites that run slow, crash, or are unresponsive. Sites that are difficult to navigate make it hard to find products and services and even more challenging to complete purchases. That’s the last thing you want! With so many people doing business online now, especially younger generations, it will pay to make your site user-friendly. You also want to ensure your website works on mobile devices as well as desktops. 

A user-friendly website has top-quality web hosting and web design that puts users first. Your messaging should be clear and concise, and your navigation tools must be logical. Also, consider including a search bar for clients to type in what they want. Make sure any online forms you have are straightforward to fill out. And as noted, all this functionality should work as well on your target customer’s smartphone as it does on their laptop.

3. Answer Their Questions Quickly

Humans have long craved instant gratification, and these days, digital technology has practically made it a standard expectation. When you meet that need for speed, you increase your potential for engagement and sales. Customers are no longer content — if they ever were — to wait for responses to their inquiries. The longer your current or potential clients have to do so, the more likely they’ll move on. If your competition is more responsive, they’re likely to get the business.  

Not that you have to be available 24/7 or employ around-the-clock staff. Instead, you can install chatbots on your website to respond to customer inquiries, take orders, book appointments, and more. Offering this service streamlines the customer experience. It also meets the immediate needs of clients on your website at odd hours. For those situations that call for a human touch, you and your staff can respond during regular business hours. 

4. Make Delivery Quick and Affordable

Purchases are another area in which clients do not like to cool their heels. Increasingly, consumers aren’t willing to wait weeks to receive an item they’ve ordered. That’s why Amazon has achieved such a commanding share of the e-commerce market. If someone can get an item they purchased delivered in two or three days, with no extra shipping costs, they will. 

To compete, consider your options. For starters, you can offer free, expedited shipping to clients. If doing so for every order is cost-prohibitive, perhaps you can offer free shipping on purchases of a set amount. Note that you can always raise the prices of your offerings — within reason — to cover your increase in costs. Many consumers regard shipping as an extra expense and are more likely to abandon their cart when asked to pay it. In contrast, spending five more bucks on a cashmere sweater doesn’t strike them as a particularly big deal.

5. Hire Happy Employees and Keep Them Happy

Another way to create an easy, positive experience to your clients is to provide superior customer service. Bad customer service can make virtually everything more challenging for clients. And particularly for small businesses, every client experience counts. You want those experiences to be overwhelmingly positive. One of the best ways to accomplish this goal is to hire helpful, friendly staff and treat them well. 

Starbucks, Costco, and Trader Joe’s are examples of businesses that have mastered this art. They hire people already inclined to provide excellent customer service and then offer ample benefits to keep their employees happy. Follow the lead of these industry giants by looking for evidence of people skills on resumes and in interviews. Call candidates’ references and ask about qualities like empathy, communication, and problem-solving. Then maintain a positive, people-centered business culture, and your happy, well-paid employees will treat your customer well, too.

The bottom line is this: Consumers want a quality product, superior service, and convenience. When you meet these needs, you make doing business with you easy, and that means more future business. Implementing these changes might seem like a lot at first. But consider them investments in your company, and you’ll likely see ample returns.