Don’t Underestimate customer opinion. It can and will kill your company if you’re not careful. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Afterall, customers tend to only buy from businesses that they like. If you do anything that changes their perception, then you will see a drop in the demand for your business that directly impacts profits. So, what we need to look at here are the issues that can obliterate the opinion of your business. There are a few different possibilities you must be aware of.
Your Company Is Unsafe
Ouch, and we do mean that literally. If any employee or really anyone is injured due to the actions or even the inactions of your company, then you will find customer opinion is impacted. Ultimately, they may feel as though they don’t want to buy from a business that is putting employees at risk. No one wants to buy from a company that they feel is a negative force in the world. You might think that they won’t find out, but accident news spreads rather quickly thanks to blogs and social media. All it takes is for one news source to report the story and a large section of your customer base will find out.
Avoiding this is simply a matter of keeping your business as safe as possible. You can think about employing a health and safety officer. With a health and safety officer, you can check your business regularly for issues that could put employees or even the general public at risk.
Your Business Causes Emotional Trouble
Emotional trouble could be anything but the prime example would probably the Weinstein Company. Unless you live under a rock on another planet, then you will have heard of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. He was released arrested, and while people once believed the company with his name could be salvaged, it’s likely it will now be liquidated. Weinstein isn’t the only company that could have this issue though. Any business that has allowed sexual harassment, bullying or emotional distress to take over could find itself under the spotlight. Once the light is on, it’s hard to shake it, and customers will pay attention. More than that, they might just spread the word that your business is bad news.
You Took Our Jobs!
Finally, this is an issue that will impact small businesses more than large corporations. Outsourcing is a smart way to save costs, but it might not always be the best ideas if you’re running a small company. Particularly if it takes jobs out of the area where your customer base is. Local service businesses are certainly at risk here. You can’t expect customers to continue to buy if you’re the reason Dave was made redundant, can you? If you’re running a business and selling to a customer base where people are likely to refer to your staff like this, consider finding others ways to reduce your costs.
We hope you find this advice useful and see just how damaging negative customer opinions can be.