When you’re the proud owner of your own small business, you should protect it. This goes for your reputation, your bottom line, and the customers that trust your business with their sensitive information on a daily basis. The best way to do this is to successfully identify areas where you might be vulnerable and develop an action plan for addressing each of them. The following are some great tips to keep in mind as you do this.
1. Handle Customer Service Issues Promptly
It’s really not possible to overestimate the importance of customer service when you run a small business. Customers that are treated well and consistently shown that they matter will only continue to do business with you. Addressing mistakes and complaints promptly can go a long way toward preserving the customer-business relationship. Get in touch with dissatisfied customers as soon as you’re aware there’s a problem. Hear the person out, apologize sincerely for any mistakes, and do whatever you can to make things right.
2. Protect Yourself From Chargebacks
Every business needs a solid plan for addressing chargebacks, how can you stay protected? Common problems with businesses are things called chargebacks. What is a Chargeback? Chargeback is what happens when a customer disputes a credit card transaction and receives their money back. Some chargebacks are part of the process, but too many of them decimate our business’s ongoing livelihood. You can keep chargebacks to a minimum by making sure customers safely receive goods they order in a timely manner. You’ll also want to implement a solid protection plan against credit card fraud.
3. Get Your Business Insured
Even the most careful, detail-oriented people can occasionally make mistakes, have accidents, or run into mishaps. That’s why every small business owner should be prepared for anything that could possibly go wrong with comprehensive insurance. Every business should be insured against natural disasters, theft, vandalism, and work injury. However, you may also want to consider specialized policies that cover even more possibilities as they relate to your location, the specific type of business you’re in, or any other important factors. A professional insurance agent can help you as to what options are the best fits for you.
4. Make Sure Sensitive Information Is Secure
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that your business is too small or personal to fall victim to a hacker attack. In fact, the number of cyber attacks that target small businesses in particular are on the rise. Smaller businesses are statistically less likely to employ rigid enough security measures when it comes to protecting sensitive information like customer credit card numbers or employee social security numbers, making them ideal targets. Protect your business from potential harm by implementing top-tier data security measures to keep it safe. Your customers and team members are trusting you with their very sensitive financial and personal information, so you owe it to them to take the best possible care of it that you can. Protect your business financially.
Making a success of your small business and protecting it from harm is largely about taking the right precautions when it comes to risk and being proactive about everything else. How will you make sure your livelihood stays safe and secure moving forward?
