There is a lot of implicit trust that a customer places in your business when they make a purchase online. With eCommerce fraud rates reaching double digit figures over the past few years, the onus is on the business to not only provide a safe and secure environment for the customer to place their order, but also demonstrate the trustworthiness of your business. The following guide will take you through the steps that an ecommerce store must follow in order to showcase the authenticity of their business.
SSL Certificate : The biggest worry that customers have while placing an order online is the possibility of their identity being stolen by hackers and phishing thieves. The first step in getting customers to entrust faith in your business is to obtain an SSL certificate for your website. SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer and is the technology behind the HTTPS protocol – websites that work on HTTPS and are certified by prominent SSL certificate providers automatically build a trust factor among their customers. Besides migrating your website to HTTPS, it is also a good idea to showcase these certificates prominently on the website for customers to see. Here is a screenshot from the eBay website on how they do it.
Showcase Third Party Customer Reviews : Nothing helps prospects convert into customers better than testimonials from other customers. People genuinely seek guidance from others while making a purchase. However, given the rampant abuse of the testimonial medium from scammers, positive reviews on your own websites no longer help. One way to use your existing customer base to drive new business is by showcasing reviews (positive and negative) from a trusted third party medium. This way, customers can read about your business from a neutral source and may be inclined to give you business. Here is a screenshot of how an automobile parts provider does it on their Mini Cooper parts page:
Display Your Phone Number : Nothing scares a customer away more than a faceless business. Always make it a point to showcase your customer helpline phone number at all transaction pages. More importantly, make sure that this number is manned at all times – sure, this will invite a lot of redundant calls from anxious customers. But this is an investment that will help convert a larger share of prospects into customers.
‘Our Team’ Page : Unless you are Amazon, a significant chunk of people click through to the ‘About Us’ page on your website to know who is behind the service. A generic anonymous write-up here is a big no-no. Instead, work on an ‘Our Team’ section where you have pictures and write-up about your employees. For relatively large organizations, it makes sense to at least have a writeup about your CXOs posted here.
Engage On Social Media : Several businesses choose to not be active on Twitter fearing disgruntled customers ruining your reputation over the medium. Fact is that this can happen even if you are not present on Facebook or Twitter. But one way to assuage prospective customers that you are available to listen to their queries and requests is by actively engaging with customers on social media. This once again shows that your organization is not faceless and there is a human behind the digital screen.
Building trust is the first step towards building a profitable business. What other steps do you think can help build the faith among customers? Share them with us in the comments below.
I’d add another element to build online trust – personalization. If used with care and discretion, sensitive to the consumer’s natural concerns about lack of privacy, utilizing personalization techniques can help reinforce and sustain tdransactional experiences: http://customerthink.com/we-marketers-see-personalization-as-a-customizing-value-building-communication-and-experience-tool-what-do-the-consumers-think/