How to make your business seem more professional
One issue with smaller businesses that makes consumers hesitant to work with them is their credibility and whether they are legit or not. This is because their size means that less people will have worked with them so the worry is they aren’t experienced enough or aren’t trustworthy to work with. Although benefits do come with smaller businesses like autonomy and freedom, this doesn’t appeal too much to the average consumer too much and will likely go for bigger businesses instead. That is why it is important to look just as professional and large as your competitors as this will give you the trustworthy and experienced appeal as everyone else.
Simplistic and stylish website
In the modern age, your online shop front is absolutely vital to the impression you give. People who want information about products or services will likely first consult the internet because of its ease of access and speed. This means that if your website looks unprofessional or looks ugly, they will be unlikely to inquire further with you. Other places will have put more effort into their site and will be more appealing to work other yours so ensure that the design has a professional looking style. In a similar vein, it is also important to make the website simple and easy to use. People are now used to a certain quality when it comes to the websites they visit so if yours is confusing and hard navigate they are also likely to abandon the site and go elsewhere.
Department names
Another way to make your brand look bigger than you actually are is to refer to departments and people in plurals instead of singular. Don’t name people over the phone and refer to a department name instead as this also increases your professional look. When talking with customers over the phone, don’t say you will have to speak with the person who handles the products, say you need to speak with production. This makes it seem like you have a lot more people working for you than you actually do and thus you look more professional.
Brand everything
If somebody comes into your offices or your store and sees that everything you use is branded with your logo, you will instantly look very official and trust worthy and creates a good image of your brand in their minds. It makes you seem that you are in control of everything and implies your companies branding is strong. Plus you can give your branded merchandise, like your custom pens, to customers who visit as well so whenever they use it they will be reminded of your brand.
Large quote and order numbers
Making the company look bigger than it actually is does influence peoples opinion of the overall brand. One of the ideas mentioned previously was that larger companies will have more experience with selling the product they are and will be more efficient in getting the final product or service to the client. This is why a lot of small businesses use larger quote and order numbers than the actual number they have done. This is because customers will see the large number and assume that means you have done masses of various jobs and feel a little safer in your hands.
Consistency
It’s important for every single business to keep everything about their brand constant. If you use a specific colour scheme on one thing like your website, you should use the same or a similar palette in everything else. It helps unify everything the company puts out under one brand and make the brand more recognisable because of it. When they people see that mix of colours together they will recognise the company it belongs to. Plus having an inconsistent colour scheme makes the company look very unprofessional as it keeps changing between different things they receive. It not only applies to branding but also with other aspects of work like product quality, customer service and marketing needs to be consistently high.
