Category Business

Helping Customers Buy With Confidence

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Originally published September 11, 2023 on knowgood.ca as “Leveraging Information and Impact to Optimize Customer Success”

Updated September 2026

Small and mid-sized businesses are competing with global brands and direct-to-consumer companies that can outspend them on almost everything. Price cuts are a hard way to win that fight, especially when the cost to make, market and deliver goods keeps climbing.

What smaller businesses can offer is confidence. When a customer understands exactly what they are buying and trusts the people selling it, price becomes one factor among many.

Give people what they need to decide

Customers want to know what they’re getting before they buy. Clear information helps them choose well, and customers who choose well are happier with what arrives. A customer who knew what to expect is a customer who keeps what they bought.

  1. Answer the real questions. Sizing, materials, what’s in the box, how long it lasts, how to care for it. Read your customer emails and reviews – the questions people ask most belong on the product page.
  2. Show it. Good photos from several angles, and a short video of the product in use, do more work than extra paragraphs.
  3. Let customers speak. Real reviews, with permission, help a new customer picture themselves using what you sell.
  4. Describe what it means for them. What will their day look like with this product or service in it?

Let your values show

Many customers want to support businesses that share their values – how they treat their staff, their community and the environment. PwC’s 2024 Voice of the Consumer survey of more than 20,000 people in 31 countries found that 80% say they are willing to pay more for sustainably produced goods, by an average of 9.7%.

What people say and what they buy can differ, though. Researchers writing in Harvard Business Review found that 65% of consumers said they wanted to buy from purpose-driven brands, while only about 26% actually did. Treat your values as a reason customers choose you and stay loyal, and keep your pricing grounded in the value of the product itself.

The businesses that earn that loyalty do three things:

  1. Do real work. Community investment, fair employment and responsible sourcing that happen year-round.
  2. Report the specifics. Share what you did, what it cost and what changed. Customers are wary of vague claims.
  3. Ask your customers what matters to them. It builds connection, and the answers will sharpen both your community work and your marketing – as long as you act on what you hear.

Try this

Pick your three best-selling products or services. Read the last 20 customer questions or reviews about each one. Add the top three answers to each product page this week.

Be well.

Sources

  1. PwC, 2024 Voice of the Consumer Survey (May 2024) – https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/news-room/press-releases/2024/pwc-2024-voice-of-consumer-survey.html
  2. Katherine White, David J. Hardisty and Rishad Habib, “The Elusive Green Consumer,” Harvard Business Review (July-August 2019) – https://hbr.org/2019/07/the-elusive-green-consumer

All Together Now: We Are Up to Know Good

Reading Time: 3 minutes

A personal note from Business Consulting Leader, Conor Tapp:

Twenty-five years. Wow!

This year (2022) marks 25 years since I first took a paid job fundraising for a charity. I had already been volunteering here and there, and I had a chance – I thought – to use my work to change the world. That first gig was …. not what I thought it would be. But it set me on a path to find ways to do more, and to do better.

And so, for 25 years I have studied, worked, connected, and engaged as much as I could. I learned from major brands – because who knows more about helping people to spend money than a brand worth billions. I learned from researchers, because they have the proof to back up my wild assumptions. I learned from you and your teams. And I worked, often multiple jobs at once, for both the for-profit and non-profit sector, explaining away my broad portfolio as simply as I could. I was either earing a living, or living with passion.

I am grateful to the impact creating organizations I serve and the stories we create together. I feel tremendous joy and privilege any time I get to share time, space and life with you. I’ve written and released a book, organized and ran a campaign with athletes who compete in the Olympics, opened a library, found a missing child (myself!), and so much more. Heck, I was interviewed by the United Nations because of a campaign I was leading! And then there are, of course, the very human stories that I have been a part of, and the memories that I will hold close for my eternity. My life story would be dark without the light you bring to it.

I have also had incredible fun and growth as a photographer, spokesperson, marketer, and strategic development leader (among other roles) for businesses. I have built strategic plans that have catapulted organizations into new realms, enabled hundreds of millions in revenue, and got to photograph the Black Eyed Peas for a magazine. I did it all without having to hurt people.

I have won awards for my non-profit work and my corporate life, and my work has been featured around the world. Over my career, programs I’ve led have influenced more than $1 billion in revenue for my clients and their communities. To capitalize on my wins, I launched brands to promote myself and my work. Each new venture gave me a chance to test and sample new ways of working. But at the end of the day, all of my successes – no matter who my client was – are grounded in the same skills and values. Whether we raised a few million together for a capital project or research fund, or we raised a few million to strengthen your business – the effort all comes from the same place.

That’s why I’ve streamlined operations and merged everything all of my work into one brand – Know Good Consulting.

Thank you for being here with me today, and thank you to everyone who has participated in my journey to this point.

I remain your partner in strategy and engagements, ready to serve.

Be well,Conor

Archive Articles on LinkedIn

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Since about 2013 or 2014, Conor has been sharing ideas, thoughts, and experiences on LinkedIn. Some of his pieces are well-written articles, while others more closely resemble stream of thought pieces.

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