Category Archives: entrepreneurships

It’s a Great Time to Reenergize Customer Loyalty for Your Brand

entrepreneurships

By Pon Angara, VisionReady storyteller

Loyal customers are those who trust a brand so much that they prefer to always buy its products regardless of price or convenience. The great merit of International Customer Loyalty Month is to promote changes in the economy. An economy based on customer loyalty is more consistent over the long term and more resilient.

Think about it: nobody is more important to a business than the consumer, right? Without the consumer, it doesn’t matter if you have a winning product that solves all the world’s problems: your business will not thrive. This was a factor that the sales world had to embrace to understand that customer loyalty is its main asset.

Begin with building trust

Loyalty has always been the tip of the balance in any business transaction. Commerce is based on trust, and it is trust that builds loyalty. How do you earn your customers’ trust? It varies depending on who your customer base is and how you engage with them.

Regardless, the first step is to create opportunities for you to LISTEN to your customers. Ask them questions that will help you get to know them better—their passion, their pain, what they care about, what motivates them, what they dream about.

It’s an intellectual and emotional benefit for the person who feels heard and validated. They can be more open and welcome further conversations and interactions with you and lead to a long-term relationship with your brand.

5 Key Realities of Customer Service

  1. Customer service is crucial for business
    Nine out of 10 Americans consider the quality of customer service to be a crucial factor in deciding to do business with companies.
  2. Customers have changed
    The internet has completely changed the way businesses and customers interact with each other — they are now closer and more connected than ever before.
  3. The whole world is watching
    Companies are seen, analyzed, and criticized all the time — a failure or deviation is quickly identified by the public and can trigger a crisis.
  4. Trust is something you earn
    Building trust is hard work and takes a lot of energy and dedication.
  5. Loyalty is something you cultivate
    While trust is difficult to earn, loyalty is difficult to maintain — companies with loyal customers are those that listen to them and take them into account.

By promoting a culture based on customer perception and on constantly improving the quality of services, International Customer Loyalty Month provides an environment of listening and transparency. This spreads throughout society.

VisionReady works with clients to create effective strategies that help forge meaningful, long-term relationships with their customers and build customer loyalty. For more information, send an email to info@visionready.org or call (305) 791-2610.

Black Business Owners: Digitize Your Business for New Market Growth

communities of color, entrepreneurships, leadership, small business, strategic planning, strengths

VR_Blog2_BlackSMBs

   By Pon Angara, VisionReady storyteller

“Despite the ingenuity and striving of generations, Black Americans have found their opportunities systematically limited by racial inequities in virtually every aspect of society and the economy.”

— Senior partner Shelley Stewart and senior partner emeritus James Manyika from their report “Building business ecosystems that support Black entrepreneurs” published by McKinsey & Company

Dismantling the barriers that have kept Black Americans from fully participating in the US economy could unleash a wave of growth, dynamism, and productivity. One of the most important pillars in this effort, according to authors Stewart and Manyika, is building business capabilities and facilitating knowledge sharing.

Organizations working to support equity in entrepreneurship can compensate Black service providers to lead these capability-building efforts. This work would protect and strengthen Black-owned businesses and build business networks with Black-owned SMBs as hubs.

The private and social sectors—particularly anchor institutions—could provide resources, including help with re-skilling and up-skilling Black-owned businesses’ workers, to make Black-owned SMBs nimbler. On-the-job training and web-based courses are both resources that can be easily shared among multiple businesses. Business-services providers could also facilitate digital transformations to help Black business owners identify new market opportunities.

VisionReady works with communities of color to guide them in digitizing their businesses. Learn how we can provide strategic planning that creates a blueprint for your company’s digital transformation, capacity building, and market share growth.

For more information, send an email to info@visionready.org or call (305) 791-2610. You can read the full report at www.mckinsey.com.