I was chatting with a small group of business owners—small businesses and home businesses and we found ourselves talking about reputation—how hard we try to develop solid, professional reputations and build strong relationships with our clients. But, somehow we introduced a vein of doubt, wondering if how we “thought” we were being perceived by our clients and customers was the way they really WERE perceiving us…
Big corporations, businesses and even politicians spend a great deal of time and money polling people and setting up focus groups to find out if they have the reputation they are going for. Presenting just the right “face” to the public is so important that millions of dollars are spent trying to influence public relations and tweak products and people to garner a favorable public opinion. Most of us are rather small-time operations and we just have ourselves (and no budget at all to spend on focus groups and public polls). Even if we are operating with the utmost integrity and attempting to build an impeccable public image, we don’t really know how well it’s working. How can we be sure that we are being perceived and received as we intend?
Well, we decided in our little impromptu business therapy group that we can’t really know what people really think or how our business’ reputation is truly evolving. Even though we should feel closer and more in tune with our customers and clients than those big businesses, we may actually have some denial and disconnect when it comes to evaluating whether our reputation is exactly how we’d like. Surveys might help, but we decided a brutally honest friend or colleague—someone who was willing to tell us the truth regardless, might be our best bet for finding out what people out there REALLY think of us and our businesses.
See Also: How Long Has It Been Since You Thanked Your Customers and Clients? and Do You Know What Your Customers Want?