A recent survey of over 6,000 consumers suggests that customers prefer to do business with small local businesses than the national chains. We see the clear evidence of this in the news every week when we hear another large chain store closing a store or going into liquidation and making thousands of staff redundant.
GREAT NEWS FOR THE SMALL BUSINESS!
More than eight in ten consumers (82%) currently use local businesses, and 48% plan to patronize local businesses even more often. (Fewer than 1% expect to use local businesses less often.)
In fact, consumers use local businesses more often than national chains. In the last twelve months, local businesses accounted for 56% of total business use, compared to just 44% for national chains.
Consumers aren’t turning to local businesses out of necessity, but out of preference. The survey asked respondents to judge whether local businesses or big businesses have each of the following qualities.
National chains only outperform small businesses in only two areas:
70% believe national chains are more likely to have a stable business
77% say they offer more competitive prices.
72% of respondents are willing to pay more to get the quality service they believe local businesses offer.
Though local businesses are doing a lot of things right, there’s still room for improvement.
Clearly, there’s a lot of room for improvement in how local businesses communicate with their customers.
How to Make Your Small Business More Successful
According to another recent study by NVM, 51% of customers will not repeat business with a company after a bad service experience. Many other studies have shown that it takes several positive customer experiences to make up for one negative one.
Given that loyal customers make a much easier sell, make good customer service a priority. Examine your current customer service and make the changes that need to be made to ensure that your small business is providing service superior to that of your competitors.
Effective marketing is key to increasing your sales, but you don't have to break the bank to promote your business. There are many inexpensive ways to market your products and services, including:
Creating a professional-looking app can be quick and easy nowadays, and your small business needs to be in the online mobile space. Research from the E-commerce Wiki indicates that 88% of consumers now research purchases online before purchasing in a store.
A simple app that describes who you are, what you do, where to find you and how to contact you should be the bare minimum. Your app should at least contain:
If you do nothing else this year, you need to make sure that your business is mobile.
Increasing numbers of people are surfing and searching with their phones—even when they’re at home.
But there are two other trends that could benefit your small business.
The first is mobile marketing. There are many mobile strategies that you could be using to reach your target market with great effect, from push notification messaging to mobile display advertising to having your own business app designed.
Second, having a mobile payment system represents your other opportunity. Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Samsung Pay, Venmo, Square, Intuit GoPayment, Paypal—the choices for paying via mobile are now endless. Offering mobile payment services is a significant convenience to customers, but your small business could be a considerable savings from being able to use a ​mobile POS system.
Most consumers turn to their local network when searching for a product or business before deciding where to shop, so building a good reputation is vital to the success of your business.
How do you get positive word of mouth? By providing good, professional service, building and monitoring your local (and online) reputation, and gaining publicity by giving back to your community through your support and sponsorship of local organizations and charities.
You did make a business plan before starting your business?
A business plan is vital for startup businesses for many reasons, including testing the viability of your business idea and securing debt or equity financing.
If you haven't made one, it's not too late. Successful, established businesses update their business plan annually to review accomplishments (or lack thereof) and decide on new goals or directions.
The financial health of your business is summarised by the income statement, the cash flow projection, and the balance sheet, which are contained in the financial section of the business plan. From there you can determine ways to make your business more profitable by increasing sales, reducing losses, or cutting expenses.
If you want your business to be more successful, you need a plan for how to get there.