Building a strong relationship with your customers is a key aspect of any successful business. One thing that every strong relationship is built on is trust. As such, it is vital to establish trust between your business and your customers.
The following article will detail seven ways in which you can do just that to help your business grow and prosper.
Table of Contents
Create a Website
If you’re looking to build some trust between your business and your customers, a great place to start is to create a website. A professional website with contact information shows customers that you are legitimate, responsible, and approachable. Businesses that don’t have websites can appear sketchy and less trustworthy even if that isn’t the case.
It isn’t difficult to create your own website. You can do it yourself with a website builder or hire an expert to do it for you. Websites can help express what your business is all about with colour schemes, logos, and valuable information. They can act as a hub for your business and are well worth the investment.
Keep Customer Data Private
Anonymising data and keeping personal details private is a good way to build trust with your clients. Lots of people are uncomfortable with their personal info being used for analytical reasons but many would feel more at ease if that information was anonymous. By letting your customers know that their data will not be collected or telling them about anonymity, you will be building more trust between you and them.
Customer Service
This won’t come as a surprise, but good customer service will build trust. If you give out poor customer service, it can be very difficult to restore that trust and repair the relationship with that customer.
Every interaction with your customers should leave them feeling well-treated and should service their every need. This applies to both in-person and online interactions. Clarifying policies and making them very transparent is a good way to get off on the right foot and avoid disagreements.
Another way to learn what can be improved is to ask customers for feedback. Knowing that your company cares will help build trust as well as give you useful and actionable information for future interactions.
Supporting Good Causes
Supporting charities and helping those in need is a great way to align yourself with the cause and show customers what your business is all about. Obviously, this shouldn’t be done with the sole intention of creating trust but nevertheless it reflects well on the business.
This can take many different forms from promoting the cause on social media platforms to giving a percentage of profits away. Customers who see this will value the company’s good intentions and trust it more as a result.
Images and Profiles
Putting a face to your business is a fantastic way to show people that you are proud of what you offer and can be trusted. Linking social accounts and providing an email address alongside a photo is the perfect way to present yourself and anyone who works for the company on your website.
Studies have shown a direct correlation between profiles and website visits, calls, and engagement. Logos are great but having faces to present adds dynamism to the company. This is a great way to show a human side to your business and is definitely worth considering if you’re keen to build trust with your customers.
Easy and Transparent Checkouts
Whenever customers buy something over the internet, they are placing a lot of trust in the selling company. Making your customers feel at ease and not like they’re being pushed into the transaction is therefore very important.
There are lots of reasons a person may withdraw from making a purchase, from needing to create an account, to an overly long checkout process, to a lack of trust in the website.
Indicating what stage of the checkout process your customers are in is a very good way to combat a lot of their potential gripes. Facilitating going back to the previous step is also another beneficial addition to improve the relationship and build trust. Costs should be clearly displayed as early as possible in the process to avoid unwelcome surprises.
Everything Working
When everything works as it is supposed to, be that online or in person, your business looks professional and reliable. If you have a website that crashes every five minutes or have things going missing all the time, it will create distrust and make your business look sloppy.
It can be difficult to get everything in working order, but it is vital. There is little point in doing all the above suggestions if none of them work as they are supposed to. When things run smoothly, your business appears trustworthy to its customers – simple as that.