Why Should Clients Buy From You?

Why should clients buy from you? Well, duh, you’re awesome! But if you want people to buy from you, it’s important to understand the determining factors people employ when making purchasing decisions.

Price may be important, but what about quality, convenience and customer services? Consistency? Reputation? While there are many reasons customers buy from you, the following is a list of eight of the most popular reasons customers buy from a specific person or company.

Price

It comes as no surprise that many customers choose price as their primary reason for buying from a specific business. Businesses that attract customers based on lower prices are sustainable, only if they do a HUGE volume in sales. Think Walmart. Most businesses that compete with lower prices are forced to continually drop their prices when another business has a competitive price. In the small business world, some businesses will often lower their prices below their break-even. When the price is the principal reason someone buys from you, the customer’s loyalty may be based purely on price and not with you or the company you represent. Unfortunately, in that case, the customer has no loyalty to your brand and will often buy from a competitor if they have a lower price. 

Convenience

With a good physical location and/or a frictionless online buying experience, consumers are often willing to pay a higher price for a business’s goods and services. For example, Chewy.com, the online pet product retailer, is the epitome of convenience. Not only does it remember your previous purchases and payment information to make ordering easy, but they also offer free shipping and have heavy bags of dog food delivered directly to your door! 

Customer Service

By having knowledgeable and friendly employees that are quick to respond to the customer’s needs and follow up after a sale, a customer will often reward the company with their loyalty, resulting in repeat business. In contrast, however, poor customer service can be manifested in bad reviews on consumer review sites like Yelp and Angie’s List, causing prospective customers to not even consider doing business with the company. 

Cause

When the business and the customer have the same values, such as veteran-owned, selling a USA-made product, having a history of giving back and community involvement with charitable causes, the customer often connects philosophically with the business. The result is that the customer will not only be loyal, but also a ‘social agent’ for the business and help spread the word about you and your business’s cause. 

Trust

The customer should know that you have a reliable history and that buying from you is not a risky bet that will come back to bite them later. Make sure your pricing is transparent and upfront at your salon or spa. More often, if someone doesn’t trust the organization, they probably wouldn’t be doing business with them. Always be transparent and knowledgeable about the products and services you offer, including their features and benefits. Don’t exaggerate! You’re already great, just give your customer ‘the facts’ and you will win their trust. 

Reputation

Reputation goes pretty hand-in-hand with the previous reason, trust. Most buyers nowadays will check out the star rating (reviews online) of a business to determine its reputation. Savvy business owners invest in reputation management and monitor the internet with tools like Google Alerts to see what is being said about their business. Moreover, you shouldn’t ignore review sites either! Reputation is a big part of the buying decisions and, as a business, you need to be viewed as credible and not as a business that only makes claims that you are incredible. 

Consistency 

Outside of being dishonest, there is nothing that erodes trust quicker than a lack of consistency! Each experience must be just as good as the last one. For example, if each time a customer visits your spa, they discover the service was great on some days and not so great on others, they may soon find another spa to spend their time and money at. 

“Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.” - John Maxwell, leadership guru

Hours

Let’s be real, customers want to make purchases and visits at their convenience, not yours. Therefore your hours of operation (and the days you are open) are very tangible reasons customers may frequent your business. This is especially important for a Business to Consumer (B2C) business! Having a web-based store, or an internet presence, can help you provide products and recommendations for future services 24/7.

We’ve given you eight specific factors that customers consider when making a buying decision, which may seem like a lot, but they are each very important to remember when thinking about your business and its customer base. Do you have experience with any of these reasons for buying? Let us know on social!