If by any chance you’re given the opportunity to start a family business, ensure that you seize it. This is because in general, customers’ level of trust toward family businesses is greater than their trust in non-family businesses.
The brand ‘family business’ can help enhance product affinity and loyalty. According to research, such businesses enhance social responsibility, trustworthiness, customer orientation, and quality orientation. Read on to learn more about family-run businesses and why customers tend to trust them more.
The Distinguishing Characteristics Of Family Businesses
Here are three traits that many family businesses have in common regardless of the industry they’re part of:
- Has Well-Built Core Values
The core values of most family businesses include trust, truth, and consistency. Most family entrepreneurs also strive to offer quality goods and services to customers. As such, a lot of them have the objective to make legitimate profits rather than defraud people of their money. Such principles encourage active employee participation, and the ultimate result is an excellent emotional connection with the public.
- Resilient
In the business world, it’s inevitable to run into losses once in a while. When this happens to a family business, all the members make an effort to bounce back from the trenches. Leaving the venture isn’t always an option because it might be the only source of livelihood for the family. Coupled with strong family values and the bond between the staff, such businesses survive through economic crises and eventually come out even stronger.
- Does Self-Advertising
Unlike other types of businesses, family-run ones enjoy an elevated market presence through word of mouth. Most of them operate locally within a given geographical location, so you’ll find that the families are known by almost everyone in the neighborhoods they serve. Therefore, they don’t have to spend so much money on advertising their goods and services. And for those that are just getting started, they can partner with a local lead generation business and accelerate brand awareness among the area residents.
Reasons Customers Trust Family-Run Businesses
With the above characteristics of family-run businesses in mind, it should now be easier for you to understand why many customers trust them. Here are five major reasons:
- Committed Staff
If you’ve ever looked into business ideas for couples, you’re likely already aware that they run their companies with a lot of passion and zeal. Because of their bond, the level of commitment is usually high. They’re in business out of their own volition, and so they do everything with focus rather than waiting for someone else to push them. Moreover, there’s a greater sense of responsibility and accountability brought by the ‘family factor,’ which attracts many customers.
- The Businesses Embrace Discipline
Discipline is key in any enterprise. Family entrepreneurs know that without it, their business can’t thrive. That’s why they’re keen on issues such as punctuality and honesty, which help them retain customers.
- Blend Of Experience And Energy
A typical family business has both the youth and the older generation. Such a combination has two advantages. For one, the young members of the family provide the firepower and energy needed to take the company to greater heights.
Meanwhile, the older relatives have experience and knowledge when it comes to conducting business properly and increasing customer satisfaction. They also advise the younger ones and train them on different aspects of running a company, such as the dos and don’ts in a business, because they’ll be in charge in the future. This is a good way of ensuring the longevity of a business and winning customers’ loyalty.
- Solidarity
When family members are working toward a common goal, they solve their conflicts and differences to achieve their objectives. Most family businesses discourage office politics and insist that work is work and home is home. They cultivate a culture of solving family issues at home and not bringing them to the business because they may adversely affect it. That’s something customers find impressive and endearing at the same time.
- Flexibility In Operating Costs
During economic downturns, many managers struggle to keep the business afloat and pay staff members. If things get worse, some employees are laid off so there’ll be sufficient funds to keep the operations running. This, however, isn’t the case in family-run businesses because the family members are always willing to contribute financially in order for the business to survive hard economic times.
The aim of these businesses is long-term success, and they’ll do anything to accomplish that. As a result, you’ll hardly find them laying off workers or closing their business. Thus, customers are attracted to them because of their reliability. They know that they’ll be able to get access to the company’s services or products regardless of the economic condition, which is a plus.
Conclusion
To sum it up, doing business with your family, especially if you share the same vision, is better than doing so with strangers. It attracts many customers and allows you to easily build brand loyalty and image. The only thing you need to do as a manager to enjoy the benefits of such a business is to ensure that there are cordial relations among the employees. It would be best to prevent issues at home from reaching the workplace. This will enable you to achieve your goals and objectives in no time at all.
