19/04/17 1 Minute Read

1 minute read

A Few Easy Ways To Build Trust Amongst Your Customers

a few easy ways to build trust amongst your customers

As the second and final instalment in our series in how to build trust amongst your customers, this week we’re talking about social media and website design. Specifically, we’re looking at how you can use each one to maximise trust amongst your customers, thereby increasing sales. So, without further ado, let’s get right into it.

Talk To Your Customers With Social Media

The main thing to remember is that it’s actually quite simple to gain the trust of your customers. Not always quick, but definitely simple. Social media is one of the most effective ways to communicate with your customers – and just as importantly, let them communicate with you. It takes patience to build relationships with your customers over social media, but keep at it. It pays off in the long run.

It almost goes without saying that transparency is key in gaining trust. By using social media to directly talk to the people who buy from you, it makes you instantly more trustworthy in their eyes. If it helps, you can think of it from the other way round – a business that doesn’t use these sorts of communication avenues might look like it has something to hide!

Social media also has the added bonus of helping you to better understand your customers, and what their needs and wants are from your business. This is an opportunity that businesses haven’t always had – after all, you’ll be hearing it all from the horse’s mouth!

Sometimes things go wrong in business. We get it. Maybe something’s misheard, or copied down incorrectly. When mistakes like this happen, honesty is often the best policy. You can listen to and address your customers’ concerns using social media, and you might be surprised at how well they take it. People love feeling like they’ve been listened to, so as long as you look like you’re taking on board their feedback, you can usually avoid long-term damage to your brand.

Can People Trust Your Website?

customer using website

There are a couple of things that some customers always look for on a website before they buy anything. This means that if you’re missing any, you could potentially be losing business from them. We’ve split them into two handy categories, and given a quick explanation for each one:

Is Your Website Secure?

  • Does it have an SSL certificate?
    • Your customers will check this by looking for the little green bar or padlock icon. The icon confirms that all sensitive information passing from their browser to your website is encrypted and secure. Many customers wouldn’t risk buying from a website without it.
  • How are online payments handled?
    • Often, customer will need concrete evidence that financial data is being handled responsibly. This might mean they’ll look for third-party payment processors like SagePay or Paypal. Whatever the case, you need to be able to reassure your customers you’re taking care of their personal data!

Is Your Website Trustworthy?

ssl certificate

  • Does it have clear contact information?
    • This includes an email address, a phone number, and a physical address. Customers need to be able to know if they can get hold of you if anything goes wrong, so if you don’t display this information you risk looking slightly shady!
  • Does it have a registered business number and a registered VAT number?
  • Does it have a copy of your SEC or trade certificate easily accessible for viewing?
    • These are all for much the same reasons as the above, really. It’s just an extra official guarantee you’ve done all your paperwork with the relevant authorities, and your company is all above board.
  • Are you displaying clear delivery and returns policies?
    • This is another extra reassurance for your customers. Again, it makes you look more open and transparent if you have a set of procedures for dealing with returns, even if you rarely use them. If the information is readily available for people to see, they’re more likely to do business with you.

We hope this series has given you a bit of insight in how to build relationships with your customers, and increase your trust from them. It’s worth repeating that it can be a slow, laborious process at times, but it definitely pays off!

At 21 Digital agency, we’re committed to helping you make it on the web. We’ve got a range of core services for you to take advantage of, from social media marketing to web development. Feel free to take a look at our case studies to see how we’ve helped businesses just like yours.

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