This month, I announced a really awesome tool for my customers… A PPC dashboard that puts everything in one place to make it easy to see exactly what is happening with your PPC. Basically it consolidates actual data and enhanced reporting, making your PPC results 100 percent transparent. Which brings me to today’s topic… why transparency is so important in business today and what you can do to improve it in your business.
Transparency means that you are giving people more and better information about your product, service or company. This gives people assurance. It is typically associated with high quality. And most importantly, it’s what people want. Consider two companies that are equal on many levels. Same products and services. Same size company. Same prices. Chances are people will value, prefer and trust the company that is more transparent because it indicates the company has nothing to hide.
In addition to customer loyalty, a more transparent company can lead to greater motivation amongst your employees which more often than not generates major growth in your bottom line. So what can you do to make your business more transparent?
Share the “numbers.” In my business, I believe in sharing the numbers i.e. the results with my team. The more team members know about sales and revenue, the more they are motivated to help drive results up. It makes them go the extra mile because they know positive results are key to both the business’s livelihood and their own personal livelihood.
This also works with customers. Making sure my customers clearly understand their results means they can make better business decisions and will more readily trust my recommendations because they know I’m not trying to pull the wool over their eyes.
In your own business, what numbers or results can you share that will help people better understand what’s happening? For example, a financial company might share more information with their customers about investments. Or you might be more transparent with your employees about sales, financials, etc. so they can help be a part of the plan to drive numbers in the right direction. You could create a scoreboard and display it where people could see it, whether this was for employees’ or customers’ benefit or both. Some examples include scoreboards about safety, “highest” or longest running result, financials, etc.
Be very clear. Clarity in your communication with customers, clients, patients and employees usually leads to greater profitability. Both time and money are wasted when people don’t clearly understand your message or goals. In my business, I do this in a number of ways. Our new dashboard was designed to make your PPC results much clearer and easier to understand. My team and I also hire copywriters to ensure our message is clearly communicated.
In your own business, what can you do to improve clarity? Here are a few ideas… you could develop a series of messages that are delivered to customers once they purchase your product. These messages would help walk people through the steps of consuming and using your product. With employees, you might create a central place such as an internal social network where your employees can ask questions and get answers, more easily communicate across departments and with upper management.
Make it easy. One of the driving forces behind our new dashboard was to simplify things for customers. Having to log in different places and then attempt to compile different data was time-consuming and at times confusing. Putting everything together in one place makes it easy for you to see what’s happening at all times. It’s a big time-saver too.
What can you do to make things easier for your customers, clients or patients? Are there things you can simplify or automate? Restaurants make it easier for customers to order by creating “meal deals.” Similarly, you could create bundled options for your prospects and customers. Another way to make things easier is to reduce the number of steps customers need to take to do something such as ordering or returning a product.
Seek transparency through disclosure, clarity and simplicity and you’ll make customers, clients, patients and employees feel more confident about your company. This leads to people valuing and trusting you more which is always good for your bottom line.
John
P.S. As mentioned, I recently announced our latest improvement – a single consolidated online PPC dashboard with actual data and enhanced reporting. Now, all your PPC results from Google AdWords and Bing Ads (along with our special call tracking data) are available to see with 100% transparency. Plus, with our simplified dashboard, you’ll be able to easily understand exactly what’s going on with your PPC advertising with just a one login. Best of all . . . it’s FREE.
