Today, employees and customers want to work and support businesses with good principles like transparency. A recent Forbes study has shown that transparency is no longer an option but a requirement. indeed, it can boost your employee retention, sales and business reputation. For this reason, it is a good idea to find effective ways to be open about your business to grow your customer base, sales and business. Below are a few tips
1. Hire transparently
Transparently hiring is one of the first places to start if you want your business to be transparent. This involves describing, in full detail, job responsibilities and expectations for vacant positions when posting vacancies and interviewing individuals. Ensure to hire open and honest personnel since such individuals can be self-accountable and trustworthy. You can reference their social media activity, watch their body language and ask specific questions during the interview. However, don’t forget to hire people excited about the job or business.
2. Communicate more and better
Communication can be as simple as notifying your customers about a shipment delay, announcing price changes via your mailing list and sharing your revised or new policies via social media. As effective as these may be, you don’t want it to feel one-sided since you want your customers to be able to contact you as well. For example, you can add a telegram widget to your website if you feel your target customers are hesitant to trust businesses in your particular niche. This way, they can easily communicate with a real person about their concerns.
3. Be open with your employees
You can improve your openness by sharing business information, good and bad, with your employees. Your staff are crucial business assets, so you want to keep their trust. The last thing you need is your staff finding out about things through rumours and gossip since it can lead to misinformation, distrust and upset feelings. So instead of creating a gossip culture, keep your employees informed on relevant news and information. You can hold regular meetings to brief staff on recent developments, publish a weekly or monthly newsletter or use department heads to share information.
4. Focus on your strengths
It is common to assume that transparency is about showing your business flaws to your customers. However, think of it as an opportunity for your business to demonstrate its strengths. Review your business operations and consider those areas you are proud of. Find out why your business is better at particular roles, the results you have achieved, and its benefits to your clients. Show off everything you have in your arsenal regardless of how small they seem. For instance, if you work in the insurance industry, flaunt it if you use blockchain for insurance for confidential data collection, increased security and accuracy. This gives you the upper hand in your sector, which is crucial, especially in today’s competitive market.
Currently, the world of business is evolving rapidly, and the stakes are higher for business owners than ever before. Especially with the widespread access to the internet and social media, transparency is a useful tool businesses can use to widen their reach and build trust with their target market.