Running a small business will always present challenges. Whether you work by yourself or have a small team to help you, you will always have to work extremely hard if you hope to compete with the larger businesses that also occupy your market. Of course, being a small business does come with some benefits, but it also means that you have to take every step you can to impress your customers and build their confidence. To help you out with this, this article will be exploring a range of different small business tools that can make it easier to attract new customers and maintain the loyal customers you currently have. Let’s dive right in.
A Good Website
The importance of a good website for small businesses cannot be overstated. While many companies have simple 
or old websites that their customers can visit, competing with bigger businesses will be impossible without something that looks modern and slick. This is easier than ever before to achieve, and you may not even need a web designer to help you if you’re using services like Shopify. It’s well worth checking around the web to see what other websites you can find for inspiration, giving you the chance to leverage the ideas that seem to work the best.
Digital Payments
Many small businesses still rely on things like cash payments and bank transfers when it comes to getting paid. While this will work for most of your customers, it can make the process of paying far more awkward than it has to be, pushing them to go elsewhere so that they can use payment methods that they like. Choice is very important here, but you need to be able to take payments by credit and debit card at the very least. Upgrading your business so that you can accept credit cards has never been easier, with loads of services around the web that can help you with this.
Fast Delivery
Delivery speed will always be important to your customers, and modern shoppers aren’t often willing to compromise on this aspect of an order. One way to maintain a loyal following is to provide next day delivery as an option, making it possible for your customers to have their items shipped to get to them the next day if they order in time. Of course, though, you don’t have to do any real work to get something like this going. Options like Amazon Fulfillment can take all of this work out of your hands, using their modern delivery network to provide outstanding delivery times.
Live Chat/Chatbots
Customer service has always been a big part of running a business, and you need to make sure that you have plenty of ways for your customers to get in touch. Live chat is usually far more cost-effective than telephone communications, and this makes it worth looking for ways to connect tools like Facebook Messenger to your website. Chatbots can also be very useful here, giving customers the chance to find answers for themselves rather than forcing you to respond to all of the messages that you receive.
Online Portals
People love to be able to manage their account, look at past orders, and earn things like loyalty points when they shop with you, and this has pushed most online retailers to create some sort of online portal for their customers. This is very easy when you’re using a service like Shopify, but will be a little more complicated for those who have a website running WordPress. You may have to pay someone to handle this work for you, but this can be well worth it to make sure that your customers are able to receive the best possible experience.
Reviews
Reviews have long been a good way to determine whether or not a product is good. You can see what other people think after buying it, and can temper your expectations so that you aren’t disappointed. This sort of resource can be very useful to business owners too, giving you the chance to make your store more appealing when people see all of your positive reviews. You can’t really make fake reviews without it being obvious, but you can push your customers to write reviews for your business when they make orders with you.
Attracting new customers may not be as difficult, but maintaining existing customers may be more challenging. Use these tips to help keep customers engaged. Make sure their experience with your business is easy and efficient.
