Literarily, being transparent means being easy to see through, but the context of transparency in a company’s actions and the team’s communication is as simple as harboring no secrets. It is taking steps in such a way that others can easily see them. People like to know things.
Make transparency a core value in your supplements business, and you will indeed differentiate yourself from competitors.
What is transparency in this context?
Transparency is a quality of all industry’s corporate culture that is reflected in the behaviors of a company’s principal or partners, employees, and even its clients. Transparency is a value that must be embodied and demonstrated daily for it to work.
Transparency in the nutritional supplements industry implies:
- Openness
- Communication
- Accountability
- Actively building trust
- Cultivating a culture where information can flow freely between people and teams
- Allowing openness to flow through to the client relationships as well
Although transparency is a vague term, its benefits can be very tangible.
What happens when transparency is working well?
Transparency in any relationship should help build trust. Trust created via transparency can be made between a business owner and their customers; it even trickles down to the employer-employee relationship. The supplements business is full of competitive players; those who can differentiate their company from others through honesty and transparency improve their chances to succeed.
Commitments to transparency are critical to a company’s reputation and overall trust in an industry already perceived as somewhat unregulated. When regulators are taking all opportunities to make public, the warnings sent to products making spurious claims related to COVID-19, trust in nutritional supplements is easier to wish for than to earn.
Added Bonus to a Transparent Nutritional Supplements Business
Being transparent with customers is finally acceptable and certainly not something of the past anymore. By sharing information, you can get a new perspective, new opinions, and better insight. You may find that service issues are solved faster and more efficiently and that clients feel empowered if you learn to be open and honest.
Today’s consumers know that companies producing clean formulations with detailed ingredient lists wear these attributes loud and proud on all possible branding and merchandising surfaces—packaging, website, newsletters and flyers. Supplement brands whose labels are an open book when it comes to their ingredients and manufacturing process already have a leg-up when customers spot those products on the shelves.
Transparency creates a value culture where customers come to know their favorite brands more intimately than in previous generations of nutritional supplement consumers.
Customers who perceive they have more profound knowledge about a brand and their practices tend to feel valued and trusted by that brand, resulting in a strong bond and loyal support between customers and brands.
Eyes on the Greater Prize
The real objective of establishing transparent business practices in the nutritional supplements industry is to support the sector’s greater good by improving relations throughout, starting with just your business. It might seem grandiose, but the dietary supplements industry – like all industries – has its share of bad seeds who use deceptive smoke and mirrors to push sales. They aren’t thinking of their professional longevity in the space, and they are certainly not considering the impact they have on the public’s perception of the supplement supply chain. We need well-intentioned, honest, and transparent companies to lead the way and show the rest of the world that reputable companies are worth supporting.
Tune in next week for more about transparency in the nutritional supplement industry.
