There are a few customers to whom I sell products on a credit basis. These customers have been buying products from shops for a long time. So, I have to allow them to buy products from me on credit. However, I make a deal with the customers. I tell them that they can buy their products from me on credit, but they have to pay 30 percent of the amount upfront and clear the remaining amount within two months. Most of my customers pay for the products within one month, but there are some customers who take four months to pay. All the customers pay me back at the end of the day. They trust me, and that’s why they buy products from me. So, this is how I run my business.
There are times when I ask my customers to share the screenshot of the payment that they are making through an app like PhonePe or GPay with me on WhatsApp. So, this is how I deal with the customers. However, there are customers who don't use any payment apps like GPay or PhonePe. Those customers buy the products from my shop and assure me that they will pay for those products the next day. Now, if I have trust in a customer, I will allow them to buy products from me and pay for them by the next day. I have to conduct my business in this way. If I don't get any customers at my shop throughout the day and a customer comes to my shop when I am about to close it, I will sell products to them on a credit basis and take assurance from them that they will pay for those products the next day. So, trust plays a big factor in any business. I note down the money customers owe me in my diary.
Yes, there are many customers who bargain for the price in my shop. I have to explain to them the amount of work I have done and why I need the stated price. Some customers agree to it, while others don't. In some cases, customers bargain and pay what they want, and in those situations, I have to bear a loss. For example, the vehicle I am currently working on, I am incurring a loss. I had provided an estimate to the customer, but there were additional expenses that exceeded the estimate. However, I can't tell this to the customer because he left his vehicle here based on trust. If I were to inform him that I have spent more, he might question the fact that I initially quoted a lower price. I could explain the situation, but that would risk losing his trust in me. In such cases, I can't do much except accept the loss and focus on earning profit from the next vehicle. It's important to prioritize trust over immediate gains and losses. If I incur a loss in one vehicle, I can make a profit from another. Trust is more important than just having customers; I want to establish trust with everyone I interact with.
I don't take any advance payment from customers. If they don't have money, I do their work based on trust and ask them to pay later. I pay from my own pocket and complete their job.
I don’t lend money to customers. Only to regular customers who I know will pay. To trustworthy customers I provide credit. If it's somebody else who says they don’t have money, I return their vehicle.
I give my customers the items at a reasonable rate because we also don't have high expenses. My wife and I live together. There are only two of us. I am not eager to earn more. If God has given me this much, I am happy to live like this. I used to feel a lot of sympathy for others. That is also a reason for my misfortune. If anyone tells me their problems, then I feel empathetic. I give them significant discounts. This is a negative point.
I build trust with my customers by simply talking to them. It is up to them whether they trust me or not. During our conversation, I discuss common topics. For instance, if a customer comes to me to get their phone's display fixed, I assure them of our excellent service and promise to do a good job. If they trust me, they will leave their phone with me. Otherwise, they will choose not to proceed.
We have to explain things to the customer and clarify any doubts. In a jewelry shop, a customer purchases jewelry worth 50,000 to 1 lakh, but they may not know about its purity. Therefore, creating trust depends on our behavior. We used to take our customers to the manufacturing unit so that they can see that the right materials are available here. We show them our work, and then they trust that our work is good. We also have ready-made furniture, but if you are building a new house and need furniture, we can provide it to you according to the interior, wardrobe, and kitchen.
We build trust with customers. We assure them that if they have any complaints, we will address them within 4-5 days. If the complaint is minor, our staff will visit their home to fix the issue. If the complaint is major, they can bring the item to our store and we will repair it free of charge. We have successfully resolved such issues 1-2 times before. When customers see that we take care of minor repairs at their home, it instills trust in our service. They can then confidently say that they purchased the item from Vinayak Furniture, where their complaint was resolved. This is how we motivate customers to trust our service.
As a manufacturer of sofas, we understand that customers may not know the specific materials used in the construction. Therefore, we invite them to bring their own staff or visit our store to see how the materials are made. They can witness the entire manufacturing process and ensure that we use the right materials. For example, we use Sleepwell foam for the sofa, high-quality fabric, good springs, and durable ply. We believe in transparency, as some shops may show one thing and deliver something else. By allowing customers to see the list of materials used in their furniture, we aim to gain their trust.
I decided to gain customers trust like this. It is about using your mind for your business. The more you use your mind in a positive way, the more positive it will go, the more you use your mind in a negative way, the more negative it will go, if I think about increasing my business then it will increase, if I think that if I show the manufacturing to the customer then I won't be able to cheat, if I don't cheat then I won't be able to save more money but I work according to my investment and profit margin, I don't know about other shops, my investment and profit gives things to the customer what they demand, that's why we tell them to see the manufacturing, these are the things that we do.
How I choose vendors according to customers' needs. A customer will come here for 5 minutes, choose furniture, and the furniture will reach their house on the same day. So why would a customer go 5 kilometers in traffic for furniture? There is a question - will they provide service or not? It is far, but customers walk from this road only. They'll go to Shanti Puram through this way only. Teachers go to their jobs from here. We have a CRPF camp, so it is easy for them to come for 2 minutes and complain about their issues on this route. In today's date, nobody has so much time to go and complain. They will use it until it is fine. If it breaks, then throw it. Nobody has time to complain. Among 100%, 2-4% complain, otherwise, nobody complains. If somebody's route is this, then they think of coming and complaining for 2 minutes. They trust the nearby people. That's why I thought that a furniture shop would be best for this area. Then I opened a furniture shop according to the needs of the customers. At the start, we couldn't manufacture things. Then I saw that there are 4-5 guest houses. Without invitation, I visited the guest houses in the evening. I saw what things people give during weddings, what quality, and range those products are. Then I thought that I have to keep products in that range only. Then I met 1-2 furniture shopkeepers and asked them where they bring things from and who their vendors are. They didn't provide me with the right information. Among 10, 8 answered me wrong, and 2 answered me right. Then I started taking things from those 2, like from the local market of Banaras. Then I went to Delhi, where I got to know about gerili wood. The wholesaler is selling only for his profit. The motive of the wholesaler is to sell cheap and attractive things so that the shopkeeper will sell it at a higher price. But our concept was not that. Our concept was that the materials from the wholesaler should be good because if we are selling, that will show our reputation as well. If I give bad products, then he might take it today, this year, next year. After that, he will not take it, and he will tell 4 people. Those 4 people will tell 8 more people that our products only look good but their quality is zero. During the opening, we bought products from the vendor only for show. I also sold it to some people. I kept it for 15-20 days.
I bought ready-made furniture to launch our store. Yes, just for the opening and to attract a crowd, we did that. If a customer liked the dressing, then I would tell them that it was already sold. We could make a similar one in one week's time. I didn't sell that particular piece to the customer. What would the wholesaler give me and what would I give you? I found local laborers who do such household work and started my manufacturing unit. We started by copying their work and making our own. At first, we didn't have polishing work, so we started with mica work because we couldn't find laborers who knew how to polish. We started using mica, and then the laborers started coming by themselves for work. We didn't give the vendor's products to the customer; we gave them our own products for trust and quality.
For regular customers we offer good rates, good behaviour and trust. We try to make our customers as loyal customers and a trust should be built between our customers and us so that they are loyal to us. In this sector, there are lot of companies in wire. So we try to generate our image in a way that all products available here are trustworthy. Recently, many of the electrical shops have been raided in Pratapgarh and they received a lot of (fake) wires there. So we do meetings of electricians from time to time and we make them aware of our products. Somehow they influence customers so we try to maintain good relations with electricians. This is because the customer who has to get the wiring done, he will contact the electrician first. Then customer will ask him about the brand of wire and its quantity. So we work with electrician and secondly build trust with the customer and provide him with the right thing.
When any customer comes to your shop, what is your behaviour of talking to your customer, plus he is asking for some discount which we offer to them. Sometimes we don’t make profits on some products and try to adjust next time. I mean that you should be able to build trust with the customer and when he has to buy electronics should come to us.
Trust is built based on the way you talk to them. You give him proper information about the product that you are showing it to them. like we get products like wire, so we tell them about such features if that wire if fire proof or not. We show the testing of wire to the customer and show him the copper quality. We burn the wire with a matchstick and show him here at the shop. We also scan the product through a scanner to show if it is original or not. We do some testing of the products at the shop which other shopkeepers don’t do that. With this, our customers trust us that we are genuine and giving them genuine products. When they buy the right product, they trust us and they are happy customers who will further recommend us to another customer. I try to make loyal customers and for doing so, I need to build trust with them and offer good rates and plus show good behaviour. I have to work with all three ways and then he becomes as a loyal customer.
Our registration is in both Electric and Electronics. We also sell TVs. Now you might say you can't see the TVs. They are on demand because I offer a good rate. Our satisfied customers call us. I had the TV installed before you arrived. I keep TVs in the warehouse. I face space issues when customers visit. Look, this is a teacher. I sent him a TV at 12.28 before you arrived. He wanted this TV, so I sent it to him. I sent him something with good picture quality. Bhaskar Sukla is one of our loyal customers. I have the contact details of my loyal customers saved. If a loyal customer calls me and requests something, I provide it. If they ask for a TV, I offer them a good rate. They don't need to go anywhere else.
When a customer visits, we give them what they need. We satisfy the customers. We don't sell for a high price and keep the correct margin, so they like our shop. If a customer asks for an item, we have to give it to them. They have to like it. First they check if things are of good quality.
Success is like when you have more customers, then you are successful. They increase automatically if you handle the customers properly. If you provide them with proper medicines and everything, and if you build that trust, then you will get more customers.
If a new customer comes, we try to make them our regular customers based on what we say and the rates. We have to show them the quality of the products at our store and convince them. That's all. So, they will visit other shops and come here. There are a couple of huge wholesale stores nearby, and they will see the rates there and come. Some people may not like the quality, and some people just ask for the rates. For example, if they want around 2 times, they will inquire about the rates of at least 50 items. Sometimes they may want a particular item that is not available, so we will buy and keep it specifically for them. If we give them what they ask for, they will definitely come again next time. We should be friendly and talk to them. We must not be harsh towards them. Sometimes they may ask if we have a family, so we have to answer them as well. They will call and ask us for the items. There are 4-5 customers who call and place orders. They may visit once every 4 months, but the bill will come every month. So, we will deliver the order, collect the cash, and come back.
Trust and faith are most important priority while doing business.
To turn a one-time customer into a regular one, I invest time in addressing their concerns. I aim to meet their business needs. When a customer has a complaint about a product they've purchased from elsewhere, it's an opportunity for us. I try to provide personalized attention and explanations. Some shops prefer not to honor warranties because if they replace items under warranty, customers are likely to return frequently for replacements. Instead, they encourage customers to buy new items. We, on the other hand, inform customers about warranties and provide replacements, which builds trust. Customers know that when they come to our shop, they can have their needs addressed, items changed or replaced, and this trust leads to repeat business.
I give credit to customers because we have to trust or else we cannot do business. I am getting stock from Pali. I am in Tamil Nadu and he is from Rajasthan. On which basis does he send? I am living in Tiruppur and give credit to Tiruppur people, then how cannot I trust? He is sending from state to state because he believes in me, right? So I should trust. Only if we trust we can do the business. Without trust we cannot do business.