With the increasing online competition against other businesses, it is extremely important to be vigilant and make sure you are not losing customers. In fact, it doesn't have to be hard to plug the holes and get more business. With just a few simple steps, your business can gain more traction online so there is no reason why you shouldn’t work on it. This is a short list of things we work on every day for our clients. They may not all be an issue for you but keep working so these become a few of your pillars of strength.

• Bad Reputation Online

It is a fact that 81% of shoppers nowadays would research a company online before buying from them. Not only would they consider the feedback of other buyers in terms of quality, but they also put a high priority on customer service. Negative reviews can really put off customers who might then just decide to look for someone else who can provide them with a more positive buying experience.

It is very important to check for negative reviews regularly and try to address them if possible. Most of the time, these customers are more upset when they are unable to contact you for a resolution. Once you help them with their concern, you may ask them to remove their negative review or at least update it. How to respond on a public thread takes a special approach. The last thing you want is a flare up - so be accountable and solution oriented. Don't start a war - even if you are in the right!

• Not Being Where Your Competitors Are

Many customers turn to third-party websites like directories or listing sites to search for what they need. It allows them to narrow down the providers to those that are based locally.

Unfortunately, if you are not listed on these sites and your competitors are, then you are losing these customers to them. Even if you provide goods or services to a much wider area, you can still benefit from listing your business in these directories.

It is easy to make this happen. You simply need to subscribe to a business listing aggregation service. This is not expensive and they will make sure to get your company listed on all the important websites or directories. As a plus, being listed will make your own website rank higher in terms of relevance.

• A Poorly Designed Website

Your website is your public face, and it is where customers get their first impression of your business. So if your competitor’s website looks more professional or is more user-friendly than yours, you can easily bet that you will be losing customers.

It may be tough to really know that you lost customers due to your poorly designed website, but up to 94% of customers have expressed mistrust of a company due to the website’s design. Worse, 48% use web design as factor number 1 in deciding if a business is credible or not.

If your site is also optimized for viewing on a mobile device, your customers will love you. It is a fact that more people search now with their handheld devices so you need to also adjust to this trend to be able to look customer-friendly.

These are just three of the many possible ways that you are losing customers, especially without your knowledge. Not knowing and addressing these points will negate all your efforts to market online and promote your brand. In order for you to come up on top and end up with of a lot of sales, you just need to address these 3 issues.