The key to any successful relationship is trust. This is paramount in business, especially when selling a product or service online.
Customer trust and loyalty are essential for building a successful business. And while this may sound obvious, it’s hard to overstate the value of establishing and displaying consumer trust.
Before customers make a purchase from you, they need to be able to trust you. They need to trust that your messages are accurate, that what you’re selling matches up to what you say it is and that if anything goes wrong with the transaction, you’ll support them.
What makes a brand trust-worthy to consumers? In research by Edelman, the top reasons included:
But, how do you demonstrate trust? Check out our top 10 tips below.
Social media is growing in terms of its reach and impact. This statistic shows just that. 54% of social browsers use social media to research products (GlobalWebIndex, 2018). More buyers are joining social media networks and looking for reviews and recommendations. That’s why it’s essential to have a prominent online presence on various social media platforms.
It isn’t enough to just have an account on various social media platforms. You need to regularly and consistently share updates. This can be in the form of company news, client testimonials, behind the scenes images, awards, website content and promotional posts. You don’t want to be overly promotional, use social media to build your brand image. Of course, showcase new products and services but don’t dedicate every post to self-promotion.
Make sure your customers feel safe when they shop with you. Even if you aren’t selling products through an eCommerce platform, customers will still be visiting your website, and the amount of safety they feel whilst there can play a significant role in how much they trust your brand.
There are a few ways you can make customers feel safe on your website.
One key area of inspiring trust is making it clear to visitors that their personal information is safe, and won’t be hacked or stolen from malicious third parties mid-transaction. To that end, having an SSL on your site is a key marker of trust that will immediately set potential customers at ease.
SSL is indicated by several means, including “HTTPS” at the beginning of a URL, as well as the padlock symbol in the address bar.
A trust seal verifies to visitors that a website is legitimate. Data is collected by the third-party trust seal company that confirms that the business is authentic.
Some trust companies, such as Norton, add an extra layer of protection by offering insurance to be paid out in the event that the transaction becomes fraudulent.
If your business is a member of an authoritative association such as ABTA in the travel industry then display this on your website. This gives prospective customers confidence that your business is legit.
More than 50,000 websites get hacked each day. If your website is hacked it may result in downtime and the appearance of your website may change. Both of which will not instil consumer trust.
To best protect your site against hackers ensure it is HTTPS Secure, update your software and CMS, choose a safe web hosting plan, change your password, install a security plugin and regularly back up your website so if anything does go wrong you have the backup!
Customer service is essential at all stages of the buying cycle. From the very first contact to the after-sales service. If prospects are getting in touch and asking questions about your product or service, give them the full attention that they deserve. Try to respond swiftly and as accurately as possible.
Failure to provide sufficient and swift responses to customer messages can result in them thinking you don’t value them and they may take their business elsewhere.
Similarly to delivering great customer service, it’s vital your brand is always available. On landing pages, including a phone number or an instant chat box can instantly increase your conversion rate. Why? Because people feel comforted knowing they can talk with someone at any time they choose.
If this is unfeasible for your business, the office closes at 17:00 and everyone goes home, fine, but, let prospective customers know. Show this clearly on your contact page or set up an automatic response which informs customers of the office hours and states their message will be responded to tomorrow.
Make sure your customers have multiple lines of contact for you at all times. Several contact options as opposed to just a contact form help legitimise your business.
If your website is ranking on page 1 of Google for terms relating to your products/services it’s a strong indicator to prospective customers that your business is reputable and trustworthy.
Many of the strategies used in search engine optimisation to enhance your websites online visibility will help build brand image and consumer trust.
One of the fundamentals of SEO is content. If you can establish yourself as a thought leader and provide your readers with content that addresses their problems and gives them real tips, strategies, and solutions, you can solidify yourself as a valuable resource.
A successful PR campaign can create immense credibility for your brand as it will appear in known publications. This could be local, national, international or niche-specific publications. Regardless, your brand reputation will grow as will customer trust.
User experience is a ranking factor. Providing a seamless user experience for your website visitors will not only boost SEO efforts, but it will also result in a better website experience for your prospective customers. If the UX is good and visitors aren’t struggling to find pages and the content they are looking for they will value your website higher and trust it more.
Displaying reviews on your website from trusted 3rd party sources such as Google, Trip Advisor and Trust Pilot demonstrates to prospective customers that other people have used your products or services. As consumers, we want to know that the company we are buying from delivers what we are looking for and the best way for us to obtain this information is through reviews left by existing customers.
Simply displaying reviews that you have collected yourself is not as powerful as these could be fabricated. Ensure the reviews you display on your website are via a known third party.
Another way to demonstrate social proof is by directing people to your social media accounts. If you have an engaged following this shows people you are a trustworthy business.
If you want to go the extra mile try and collect video reviews from customers.
If you aren’t familiar with influencer marketing it is a strategy utilised by brands in which they collaborate with an individual who has a good following on social media relevant to their brand and target audience.
Why does working with an influencer build trust? Well, people who like or follow an individual do so because they’re a fan. As a fan, you trust that person opinion. So if the ‘influencer’ is promoting a product/brand the fan will value their opinion and subsequently trust your brand.
According to the Digital Marketing Institute, 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations.
Nobody likes dealing with corporates so try not to use scripts and formulaic responses; instead, encourage your employees to speak from the heart, and engage customers like real people.
This small change makes your brand seem more human than corporate, and can drastically change customers’ impressions of you for the better.
As the old adage goes people buy from people.
Telling your story is a crucial part of building a brand. It shapes how your audience views you and allows them to look beyond the products and understand where you’re coming from.
If you want to gain your customers’ trust, there are no shortcuts; you’re going to have to earn it. How do you do that? Well, a great starting point is to be open and transparent about your products and what potential customers can expect of you as a company.
Give your customers all the information they need – including clear pricing and even limitations – to help them make an informed decision. The more clued up a customer feels, the more likely they are to give you repeat business.
Achieving consumer trust will not happen overnight but every new review, every answered query, every new article is a brick in building consumer trust. Once you have a great reputation you have a great business. With consumer, trust comes customer retention and brand loyalty.
We hope you found the article helpful. We’d love to hear what you are doing to build & maintain consumer trust.
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