Helping Customers Buy With Confidence

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