{"id":35962,"date":"2019-02-14T11:38:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T16:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=35962"},"modified":"2019-02-14T11:38:59","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T16:38:59","slug":"getting-customers-to-trust-your-online-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=35962","title":{"rendered":"Getting Customers To Trust Your Online Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

– Contributed content –<\/em><\/p>\n

\"E-commerce<\/a>
(PhotoMix Ltd, Pexels.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

14 Feb. 2019. We live in a cynical age, and with some justification. There have been enough shady actions from the world\u2019s biggest companies to make people question who, exactly, are the good guys in the world of business. As such, people are less likely to blindly hand over their cash to a business that they don\u2019t know all that much about. Trust must be earned. This might be straightforward enough in the real world, but what about in the online world, where business owners don\u2019t have the luxury of face to face contact? Below, we take a look at some tried and tested methods for developing trust via your website.<\/p>\n

Be human<\/b><\/p>\n

You may operate in digital code, but there\u2019s a real person behind the scenes, so make sure your website visitors know it. You can invite trust simply by sharing some information and a photograph of yourself, if appropriate. It doesn\u2019t have to be anything overly deep; a short summary of who you are, where your based, and the motivation behind the website will be a good place to start. People use the internet but they don\u2019t always love it — the human factor reminds them that it\u2019s still part of the \u201creal world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have great content<\/b><\/p>\n

People trust authority. If it seems like someone knows what they\u2019re doing and talking about, then people pay attention. So how do you claim your position of authority via your website? You do it by having great content. For example, on your blog<\/a> you can tell visitors the benefits of using whatever products or services you provide. This shows your visitors that you know what you\u2019re talking about it, but, more than that, it also helps boost your search engine rankings and shows that time, care and professionalism has gone into the website, which is another indicator that trust should be given.<\/p>\n

Avoid underhanded tactics<\/b><\/p>\n

You really can\u2019t fool the general public. Well, you can fool them once, but that\u2019s it. As such, it\u2019s much better for the long-term health of your business if you avoid any underhand tactics. For example, let\u2019s think about your pricing. If you list the price as one thing but then sneakily add in another charge just before the customer pays, then there will be doubts about how your company operates. Basically, any sort of deception should be avoided, even if you think it might help boost sales. It will in the short-term, but no trust will be established, and that means your long-term prospects will be poorer because of your actions.<\/p>\n

No quibble returns<\/b><\/p>\n

You can\u2019t abuse the trust people have placed in you by making an order. It has to stretch right through for the entire customer cycle. Let\u2019s say, for example, that someone is unhappy with their purchase (for whatever reason), and wants to return it. While there are some scenarios when you could refuse, it\u2019s nearly always better just to accept the return, unless you think some foul play is at hand. Indeed, one of the best indicators that a website is trustworthy is when they have their returns policy clearly outlined, for all to see. And of course, if you\u2019ve espoused your generous returns policy, then you have to honor it. The returns policy is actually a big factor when a potential customer is deciding whether to make a purchase or not.<\/p>\n

Be available<\/b><\/p>\n

One of the reasons why people like brick and mortar stores is because they know that if they need to speak to someone, they can visit in person and talk with someone. In the online world, this is not possible. That\u2019s why it\u2019s doubly important that you make yourself available for your customers to talk to, in a number of ways. You can start by listing a phone number for customers to call — people like knowing that they can pick up the phone and chat if they need to. You\u2019ll also want to have an email contact address easily located on your site, and systems in place to answer them quickly. Social media channels, especially Twitter, can also be used to quickly respond to customer\u2019s questions.<\/p>\n

Take data seriously<\/b><\/p>\n

One of the reasons why people are so skeptical about online companies these days is because, well, they\u2019ve been burnt before by online companies. The number of data breaches<\/a> has risen considerably in recent years, and while \u201cdata\u201d may sound unimportant, what it really means is \u201cpeople\u2019s personal information.\u201d You can help to develop trust by making sure that the security of your site is up to date<\/a> and fool-proof. If for whatever reason your data is compromised, then you need to tell your customers immediately — you might lose their trust and business, but respect will still be there. If you delay, you won\u2019t even have that, and it\u2019ll be the end of your business.<\/p>\n

Other people\u2019s opinions<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all good and well telling your customers that you\u2019re trustworthy and dependable, but you\u2019ve got a pretty big stake in having them trust you. You\u2019re biased, essentially. There\u2019s a reason why people pay so much attention to reviews and the experiences of other people, and that\u2019s because they\u2019re not biased. They\u2019re just customers. So if you have a track record of delighting customers, then put their positive words to good use. You can use a service like www.simplesat.io<\/a> to solicit feedback, which can then be published instantly on your website. The experience of others really does have an impact on how people view your business, so make the most of their words.<\/p>\n

Handle issues<\/b><\/p>\n

Every company in the world makes mistakes. You\u2019re not going to get everything right. The quality of your company won\u2019t be reflected by whether you make mistakes or not, but how you respond to them. If you\u2019re proactive in handling issues and making sure that your customers are satisfied, then they\u2019ll trust you. Do everything you can to make sure that the people using your service come away happy with your service, and they\u2019ll stick around – people rightly like businesses they can depend on.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We take a look at some tried and tested methods for developing trust via your website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[132,74],"class_list":["post-35962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-contributed","tag-entrepreneurs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35962"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35965,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35962\/revisions\/35965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}