I love trying out small businesses because they provide alternatives to their mainstream counterparts. I am always on the look out for new players in the market who offer something fresh. I also see it as investing on a new generation of entrepreneurs and their ideas.

But every so often I encounter small businesses that remind me why many people still have a hard time considering them as serious alternatives.

Here is a basic list of the things I wish a lot of small businesses would do better on so that people like me would be inspired to support them more.

Reply To Messages Fast

How fast? Maybe within 3 minutes of receiving the query. Don’t be like some big companies that take hours or even days before they get back to their customers.

They might be able to afford to lose hundreds of customers (and even then, they shouldn’t want to lose customers) — but in small businesses, every customer should really count.

And if you are a one-man show and the inquiries become overwhelming, maybe it’s time to get a dedicated person or a partner who is knowledgeable, articulate, and patient enough to communicate with your customers.

Having a business is not very different from building personal relationships. They’re not passive. Both need effective communication habits to work. If you’re not communicating well, you are failing.

Communicate Clearly

Part of effective communications is to make sure that people who’ll go to your business’ Facebook or Instagram page will quickly understand everything that you do or what you have to offer.

Put all of your offerings in one album or collection. Keep it updated. Make it dead simple for your customers to find every information and photo that they might need in a single place.

No customer will feel good about having to scroll through a long feed just to find what they’re looking for. If customers get tired of scrolling or searching and they don’t find what they’re looking for, a lot of them don’t “message for more info”, they just leave and take their money somewhere else where the experience is better.

Look For Feedback

How you take feedback will somehow depend on how personally attached you are to your product or services. It’s a good rule to be humble about starting your own business and be open to criticism early on.

The possibility that your business will need improvement is 100%. And many of your friends, partners, and customers will go out of their way to help you improve for free by giving their opinion. Listen to them.

Of course, there are the occasional trolls and bashers who will give destructive feedback. This is why it’s always good for your business to also have a level of self-awareness. You have strive to know what you’re doing so you can retrace your steps and see if a feedback really makes sense or not.

Be Consistent

I think the discipline in being consistent is what separates good small businesses from the ones that need more work. This seems like the hardest part of it all — and the thing that matters the most.

Don’t make your customers feel like you’re a hit-and-miss. They need a sense of assurance that they will get the exact same experience and results every single time they spend their money and time on your business — that, for the most part, they won’t regret having considered your business as an alternative.

I understand that customers shouldn’t really expect the same mainstream polish from small businesses — and many early adopters are open and understanding about it. After all, not even a big business is perfect. But the good experience that they have with you the first time they try your business out should be the same experience (or better) when they come back.

Or else they won’t.

Photo by Agenlaku Indonesia on Unsplash.