Why credibility counts

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Bikky Khosla | 05 Feb, 2013
What is credibility? This may sound like a dull academic question, but it is one of the most practical problems small entrepreneurs face -- when they first start off their business, and in many instances, even after doing business for several years while trying to expand their market or client-base. After all, small businesses, unlike the big boys in the market, have little claim to fame.

Only a handful of small firms manage to overcome this credibility barrier. Most of them attribute the reason to their lack of financial prowess to spend lavishly on advertising and promotion. Does finance really matter so much when it comes to building credibility? Why and how then do some small businesses, despite these limitations, manage to buck the trend? I think the key to creating corporate credibility lies somewhere else -- size and budget are immaterial. When we look around, we find some common mistakes made by small businesses.

First, many SMEs go to great lengths to show themselves bigger than they really are. They lie about their size, try to fool people into thinking that they can handle any size of order at any time, choose deceptive corporate names to make their business sound bigger, give imaginary 'branch' office addresses that exist only in their mind, and so on. Should we do these things? Does quality really depend on how large a business is? More importantly, sooner or later the cat will be out of the bag, and once this happens, your clients are not going to trust you again.

Second, every small businesses is enthusiastic about sales, but only among a few there's a real sense of enthusiasm about caring for customers. Their talks sound like sales-pitch; buyers' queries are replied without any information about standards, specifications or competitive benefits; the customer service department always lacks the 'wow!' factor; they never put much stress on learning from customer feedback; and so on.

Third, competence is a core factor in building credibility. I think one can get a great deal of value, particularly in terms of competitive advantage, from professional and trade certifications, but unfortunately only a handful of SMEs contemplate going for certifications. Besides, majority of them don't try to engage in continual learning. Here, I think small things like subscribing to online business publications, observing practices in other businesses, talking with friends who have business, partaking in conferences, blogging, social networking, etc. can make a big difference.

Change to Transparency, care and concern for customers and competence - these are some (not all) basic elements of credibility and if you are a small business, these ideals must be reflected in everything you or your staff do, in every interaction with the outside world -- communication, marketing and customer services -- every single time and all combined together. Doing the aforesaid things right can be a powerful first step in establishing credibility for your small business.

I invite your views on corporate credibility-building.