5 Ways You Could Be Putting Your Painting Company’s Reputation at Risk

A company’s reputation is one of its most valuable assets. Positive reviews and brand awareness can lead to an increase in leads, customer inquiries, and profits. Ensuring your company builds a good reputation by providing superior services and reliable staff to your customers is imperative for business growth. As a business owner, you should constantly evaluate your company’s reputation. Here are five ways you could be putting your painting company’s reputation at risk.

1. Failure to Implement a Strong Ethical Culture at Your Company

All companies need to implement a strong ethical culture for their employees. Without strong ethical initiatives, employees aren’t actively encouraged to make the right moral decisions when tough choices arise. Conversely, if your company culture does have a strong ethical and moral framework, employees will be discouraged from acting in a way that could harm your company.

Serious judgment errors, such as theft, fraud, and other illegal activities may be committed by only one employee, but they can have a significant impact on the reputation of your business. When consumers suspect your company is untrustworthy, they are unlikely to give you business. To avoid this, you should set high standards for your employees to follow and enforce significant consequences for breaches of your ethics code.

2. Lack of Company Initiatives for Community Engagement and Social Responsibility

Consumer expectations are higher than ever before. Specifically, young consumers want to purchase products or services from companies that give back to their communities, incorporate sustainability into their business model and are committed to social responsibility. Increasingly, companies are implementing giving and community service programs along with sustainability initiatives.

Approximately 66 percent of consumers say they would pay more for a product or service from a socially responsible company. For painting contractors, social responsibility could come in the form of volunteering to paint a community space. Not only are social responsibility initiatives positive for communities, but they can also have a direct influence on the profitability of your business. Companies that engage with their communities often see a big return on their social investment.

3. Bad Customer Service

Quality customer service should be the backbone of your business. One of the easiest ways to ruin your reputation is to treat your customers poorly. As a business, you must be consistently improving your customer’s experience. Employees who are rude with clients, unwilling to take initiative in finding answers to consumer questions, or who fail to follow-up with customer complaints can cause significant damage to your company’s reputation. They essentially send a message to your customers that your company does not care about their problems.

To combat negative customer service, you should implement training initiatives that teach employees the best strategies for interacting with clients and providing them with a positive experience. In order to avoid a bad reputation, you need to prioritize customer service.

4. Low Employee Satisfaction

Investing in the happiness of your employees is essential for building a positive brand reputation. When employees are satisfied with their employers, they are more likely to encourage others to try their company’s products or services. In this way, employees act as a valuable referral source. Additionally, content employees are more likely to provide better client experiences than those who aren’t. Conversely, when employees are unsatisfied, it can have negative impacts on a company’s reputation in the form of lower quality services and negative word-of-mouth.

5. Personal Information Leaks

Today, businesses rely on technology to streamline their operations. While technology has made business operations more efficient, it comes with its own set of drawbacks. Sometimes, the systems—such as a CRM (customer relationship management) system—that you use to store your customer’s information can be the victim of a cyberattack. Often, cyberattacks result in the leakage of personal information. Companies that lose personal information often take a big hit to their reputation. Prioritizing information security is essential for maintaining a trusted reputation.

Painter’s Academy Helps Painting Contractors Build a Positive Reputation

If your painting company has been plagued by a bad reputation, the business coaches at Painter’s Academy are here to help. Our team of experienced marketing professionals can help you implement effective strategies for building a positive reputation. If you want to grow your painting business, call today at (423) 800-0520, or fill out our online contact form.