Jupiter Research, one of the leading providers of research on Internet commerce, recently revealed studies that showed 64 percent of online consumers are unlikely to trust a website (Peckham). How do you successfully beat these odds and reflect your firm’s honesty and your people’s authenticity to your clients?
Top 10 Tips for Successfully Establishing Trust in an On-Line Environment
1) Use referrals as trust builders. This tried and true classic method is still one of the best business moves to make. Ask satisfied customers to serve as references and include quotes.
2) Solicit online feedback to establish your reputation. On your website, include a place for comments. Although eBay is probably not a site you would market your services through, it does provide an example of how rating systems can build up a businesses’ reputation online and help them profit. As iKarma’s CEO Paul Williams stated, “People (on eBay) with an established reputation, as opposed to those without a reputation, made 20 percent more sales with an average of 10 percent higher cost.” (CNET website)
3) Encourage your employees to list their affiliation to your company on their professional social network profiles. When people are the “product,” social networks such as LinkedIn provide an outlet for the six degrees of separation to be played out for corporate members. Displaying connections to other people of integrity is an opportunity for your employees to show their credibility. Taking advantage of this system can expand your network to tens of thousands or more.
4) Provide value in your field. Become an expert in your area of specialty, and volunteer to help others in your field. Offer online classes or coffee webinars (you could offer participants’ gift cards to Starbucks or other coffee shops) on topics related to your firm. Contribute articles or other helpful resources. Start a blog on your own web site or use a third party service like Blogger. Host a meet up on Meetup.com. Volunteer to give talks or host workshops through your local Chamber of Commerce or similar groups.
5) Spend time and money on the creation of a well-designed website. According to TheWebforBusiness.com, “If your site is graphics heavy, takes a long time to download, doesn't have intuitive navigation, contains broken links, relies heavily on plug-ins that users have to download separately or has other design features that make it difficult for visitors to find the information they're looking for, they will leave.” A well-designed website requires substantial investment (Kirmani and Rao/Yunjie et al Research Paper). However, like a physical storefront, it also “suggests the care the business has taken to offer a better purchase experience to customers (Gefen 2003), and the technical and financial strength of the company.” McKnight et al. (2002) and Gefen found empirical evidence that the web design affects a client’s trust.
6) Be transparent. Make it clear to your customers what they can expect and do not purposefully withhold information or accidentally leave your clients in the dark. A study from the Wharton School of Business found that the more you demonstrate your intentions and remain transparent early on, the likelier you are to build trust with new parties.
7) Prominently display reputable affiliations. On your site, display any business certification seals you have the rights to use, such as those of the Better Business Bureau or Chamber of Commerce membership, and the logos of reputable business partners. The saying about getting to know more about a person based on who his/her friends are holds equally true in the corporate culture. Displaying your affiliations also helps to signal that you have been vetted by outsiders.
8) Hire people you can trust. An ADP survey in 2003 revealed that over 50% of job seekers submit resumes with employment or education claims that are later found to be false. What are the best tools to expose false information? According to recent surveys, between 25-30% of all managers rely on a simple search engine to check a potential employee’s credibility. (Bowers) The problem with this is that there are many people with the same name, and information on the internet can be faulty. It is a risky resource at best, especially considering that The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners reports that Occupational fraud and abuse costs organizations about $600 billion a year, or roughly 6% of gross revenues. To help remove some of the doubt, use a background screening service to check candidates’ backgrounds and verify their credentials and references, making sure to get permission from the candidates before you investigate.
9) Handle, do not hide from, negative press, buzz, and feedback in a timely manner. Not all clients may be satisfied with your services all of the time. Humans, and therefore people-powered companies, make mistakes by nature; it is through our handling of our mistakes that our true characters are revealed. Immediately address any negative publicity by stating very specifically how your company will rectify the situation, and then follow your word. According to Mari Peckham, it is a fact that “98 percent of people will continue to use a business even AFTER they have had a problem, if their problem was resolved in a prompt and courteous manner.” Make sure this news is broadcast in all appropriate venues.
10) Protect your clients’ privacy by creating a secure online environment. Produce a privacy policy and make sure users know about it. If you handle user logins, use login protection similar to that used by banks for online transactions including security questions, IP recognition, and image prompts. Vidoop is an interesting service that makes some of this easy to accomplish. Use encryption to protect data transfers, and make sure your servers are firewalled. Consider getting McAfee Secure certification to further protect your users. Appoint a privacy and security officer and periodically subject your firm to an internal and external audit.
The rules for navigating and conducting business online are evolving and continue to be defined, and the above tips are just a starting point. Regardless of what new technologies develop, however, one principal which will always remain is the importance of establishing trust with customers and clients.
This article is sponsored by Crederity, Inc., a web-based trust-building company that offers online identity and credential verification to people-powered companies. Visit Crederity.com to sign up for a free beta account or contact Crederity by e-mail at info@crederity.com for more information.
Resources Cited:
Bowers, Toni blog “Bringing in the Big Guns to Defend Your Reputation Online” June 21, 2007. May 26, 2008
Building Initial Online Trust: A Social Learning Theory Perspective and Application on Brick-and-Click Companies. Xu Yunjie, Kim Hee-Woong, Padmal Vitharana, Research paper, National University of Singapore. April 15, 2004. May 23, 2008.
Gefen, D., 2003. Trust and TAM in online shopping: an integrated model. MISQ 27(1) 51-99.
(as appears in Building Initial Online Trust: A Social Learning Theory Perspective and Application on Brick-and-Click Companies article referenced above)
Kirmani, A., Rao A.R. 2002. No pain, no gain: a critical review of the literature on signaling
unobservable product quality. Journal of Marketing 64 66-79. (as appears in Building Initial Online Trust: A Social Learning Theory Perspective and Application on Brick-and-Click Companies article referenced above)
McKnight, D.H., Choudhury, V., Kacmar, C. 2002b, “The Impact of Initial Consumer Trust on Intentions to Transact With a Web Site: A Trust Building Model”. Journal of Strategic Information Systems 11 297-323. (as appears in Building Initial Online Trust: A Social Learning Theory Perspective and Application on Brick-and-Click Companies resource referenced above)
Peckham, Mari. “Creating Trust” on Online Business Help. Jan. 20, 2004. May 23, 2008
Terdiman, Daniel. Start-up lets sites track user karma. March 2, 2006. June 12, 2008.
Trust Building Among Strangers: An Experimental Investigation of Mutual Trust and Trustbuilding. Hua-Ho Teck and Keith Weigelt. Research paper as Published in Knowledge @Wharton September 28, 2000
Web for Business.com website. May 23, 2008.