I was at a networking brainstorming session with local business owners recently. It is always great to get out from behind the screen and hear from other business owners.
The one thing that did come up every time we were trying to help a business with their problem was they needed to build and improve trust with their customers.
Trust is a powerful motivator in business, to get someone to click ‘contact me’ ‘buy now’, to turn visitors into customers.
The way a company communicates its values, and the customer experiences with the business is what builds trust and the relationship over time. This is the essence of what makes a customer buy from you.
What is customer trust?
Trust is a strong belief that something will happen or be the case.
The synonyms for trust - reassurance, expectation, assumption, confidence, faith, anticipation, assurance – are based around personal experiences.
Trust is designed to remove the fear between the customer and the business. It is a social interaction and built over time. This is why trust can be hard for a business to convey in a digital space, such as on your website or through a social media account.
You must also consider that what one person believes as trustworthiness, may be very different from another person’s belief.
What is your business’ level of risk for its customers?
Each industry and company firstly, needs to assess the kind of trust your customers expect from you.
For example, a customer looking for a financial product/service - considered as high risk transactions - would expect to see and need more trust elements.
What is the level of trust your customers need to do business with you?
On the other hand, an online t-shirt company, would not need to communicate as many trust elements to their customer, because the level of risk is relatively low, as determined by the value of the transaction. The business would need to show a secure payment method to reduce the customers risk.
Now that you have assessed the level of trustworthiness your customers are expecting from you, what are some of the ways you can improve the level of trust on your website?
20 ways you can improve trust on your website
Think of trust as a way to make your website human.
Let’s look at some of the elements you can add to your website to improve your visitors level of trust with your business -
1. Industry Awards
Winning an industry award gives your product/service an industry validation that your offering is innovative and stands tall against your competitors in your field.
The award application process may be long and arduous but well worth the industry validation for your customers.
2. Testimonials
Reading that others have had the same problem as you and how they used the product/service and received benefit from it, provides external proof.
Although the validity of testimonials may have lost their lustre, there are ways around to use them to build trust. Write some background information about the customer, or get the customer to write in more detail. It is the little details that make a testimonial more believable.
Go one step further and provide videos of customers speaking about your business. These are harder to fake. How about posting photos of your customers using or wearing your product?
3. External validation support
Has your business or products and services been in the news or been published in an industry magazine? Has anyone been talking about or featuring your products/services from outside the company? Show this on your website.
Do you have any accreditations for your company or products? What about any patents or trademarks?
4. Use of Videos
Videos reveal more than words on a website, they show emotion and it is this emotion that give videos a human element to your content and business. It demonstrates your business as approachable; they can see and hear the personality behind the website and it is an easier way to convey your brand story.
5. Qualifications / Memberships
Does your business have any industry qualifications, such as Google Partner or memberships to industry associations?
These qualifications and memberships show the business is a keen participant and is up to date on what is happening in their industry.
6. Case Studies
Case studies or white papers showcase customers pain points or problems and exactly how your business worked at solving their problem. If this business can solve this persons problem, than they can help me with my similar problem or need.
Here is an example of my client using case studies to show the customer problem and demonstrate the effectiveness of their services in solving their problem.
7. Top notch About Us page
Don’t put generic information that can relate to any company in your industry on your About Us page, add more detail. Be specific, drill down and add personality about your business.
What is the unique story behind the business? How many years have you been doing it? How has the company evolved or grown? Did you start out in the garage of your mum and dad’s house and now have office space in the city?
Here is a great example of About Us page written by yours truly -
For one of my clients, we looked at how many times visitors clicked on their About Us – almost every new visitor wanted to know about the company! Could you improve your About Us page?
8. The team
Show and talk about your team.
Some of my clients shy away from this for a number of reasons - the team changes all the time, the time it takes to go into the detail, or the staff don’t want their details on the website - but visitors want to see who you are. We don’t care whether it is a small or large team, we want to meet them.
Don’t have a team, write about you personally, what do you like, how do you do your job? Who do you partner with?
9. Many contact points
Give visitors options to contact you. A business that hides behind a generic email address and provides no other means of contact, does not convey trust to the visitor.
Customers may assume that if they have a problem, they will not be able to contact the company.
10. Understanding a customer’s pain point
A friend who understands what you are going through is invaluable. A business that really understands your pain points, feels like they get you and gives you more faith that their product or service can serve their needs better.
11. Tone
Something simple like tone can really instill an element of trust – a flippant or too jokey tone to your content conveys an arrogance, a ‘I can’t be bother’ attitude. Whereas a conversational or slightly professional tone feels like you are talking to the visitor, like a human. The company is approachable.
12. Quality website
Taking the time and expense to produce a quality website expresses a confidence in your business. An out of date website is like a dirty shop, nobody wants to venture in!
A website that is user friendly is a way of showing trust, not only does it make their life easier to navigate through your website and the information you provide shows the visitor that you understand them and know how to help them.
13. Links to social media
A presence on social media opens a two-way conversation and shows you are willing to communicate on different levels to customers. Social media opens a business to risk - direct criticism and vulnerable – but if handled well helps to build trust.
Your business can have fun with social media, talk to real customers and bring in a little humour.
14. Be transparent
Tell your story, not just the good parts, but the parts where you stalled, hesitated, conquered, overcame. This is what makes your business yours and makes your business human. Being open and honest, is a clear way of showing confidence in your business and offerings.
15. Up to date content
Updated content means your business is alive and ready to do business. They know the value of helping their customers and take the time to provide topical and current information.
Content that is outdated gives the impression, that maybe your business, products or services are outdated as well.
16. Give your visitors content they want
Understanding your audience’s problems and pain points by providing well-written and concise content that helps them and answers their questions.
Building up a comprehensive knowledge base will create an assurance and confidence that your products and/or services is what they need.
17. Show trust in others
Do you have business partners that you work with? Communicate this on your website. If other businesses are willing to work with you than this gives the visitor more faith that your business is genuine.
18. Be respectful
Respect goes hand in hand with trust. If you show your customers respect by valuing their opinions, their time and their concerns in you, this goes a long way to build trust.
19. Offering a Guarantee, Returns policy or Money back
A clear, concise but detailed returns policy or guarantee offered to customers gives them trust in the product showing the company is confident on the quality of their products and are willing to back it.
It not only takes the risk out of the purchase for the customer, it can have the added benefit of perhaps pushing your customer over the line to purchase.
20. Security measures
Visitors, especially these days, will assess your website’s credibility before using it. Ensure that your url can be linked to your company name or what you do and that you use secure features especially when taking payments online.
Use payment gateway assurances for ecommerce sites or purchases online.
If you are unsure of the safety rating of your website you can run it through Google’s Transparency Report here.
Most of these trust elements, are obvious and easy to implement, others not so. It will take time to build trust and a relationship with your customers but well worth the effort.
What other ideas do you use to build brand trust online? Do you need help with building trust on your website? I have some great ideas we can do together to get you started.