10 Ways to Build Trust With Your Customers

A good customer experience is an important asset. A successful ecommerce store can take years to build, but only a few bad experiences can torpedo the entire operation.

There are no shortcuts to building trust when it comes to small businesses.

Building trust with your customers is something you need to think about in the long term, and it requires planning and engagement.

How do you build trust with people you’ve never met? Could they even trust you?

Here are ten ways to build trust with your customers:

#1. Offer high-quality products

Quality should be a top priority for every business. Whether you’re selling clothing, equipment, food, or gadgets, your potential customers need to know that their satisfaction is among your top priorities. If people purchase from your store and their items don’t meet their expectations, then they may not come back in the future.

#2. Make legit guarantees

The internet has made it possible for companies to conduct business without having a physical shop front. As a result, you may not be able to offer refunds or exchanges if your customers are unhappy with their purchases.

#3. Build. Keep it simple. Be consistent

Be Consistent. Keep your website, emails, social media, and articles consistent…Be Consistent! It’s so important. I can’t stress this enough. If you’re offering the same product on Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and your website, make sure it’s the same price on all of them.

We see this all the time where one seller will sell something for $10 on eBay but then list it for $15 on their website, or even worse – $20! Such a horrible movie! It shows a lack of commitment and forethought into the marketplace you’re selling in.

#4. Be PCI compliant

Make sure your website and online store are secure with a PCI DSS certificate. A security certificate lets visitors know that their information is protected with an encryption key, so no one can access it or steal it.

Likewise, a secure checkout will help you increase sales by reducing cart abandonment, eliminating credit card fraud (familiarity with credit card decline codes is important), and reducing payment fraud.

Using a 3rd party payment gateway, you can offer customers multiple options for payment and method of delivery while reducing the chance that they will leave without completing the transaction.

#5. Respond to your customer’s emails and calls on time

Doing business online today is no easy task. Between SEO, social media, advertising, and inventory management, small online retailers have many balls to juggle.

However, taking the time to build trust with your customers can set you apart from your competition. The first time a customer emails you for a quote or to ask about something on your site, there is a good chance you will get back to them within a reasonable amount of time.

However, after the sale is made, getting back to customers can be a challenge. Busy retailers all too often put off responding to customer emails and calls, hoping that the issue will work itself out. If you are a small online retailer and you want to build trust with your customers, don’t forget about the importance of answering your customer’s questions and calls.

#6. Erase Doubt

Customers will put their hard-earned money on the line when they have total confidence in your company. To achieve this, a company must offer excellent customer service, fast shipping, and accurate order fulfillment.

Trust is everything in ecommerce. You don’t want customers wondering if your site can be trusted to process their credit card payments and you don’t want to be the website that lets customers down by failing to deliver on promises of quality and fast shipping

#7. Make it visual

Humans are visual beings; we need to see things to make sense of them. Your customers are no exception. Whether it’s images on your website or product packaging, how your product looks is essential in building that trust upon which your business relationship will stand. A good look makes your customer confident that what they are buying is high quality and will meet their needs.

#8. Be transparent

You can think of transparency as a way of sharing information with your customer. When you share more information, your customers are more likely to trust you. Transparency can be achieved by writing a blog and making it public, posting about the progress of your business on social media, and including customer testimonials on your website.

#9. A Privacy Policy

Having a privacy policy shows that you respect customer information and are committed to protecting their data. With the recent data breaches and security incidents, an internet user doesn’t have to look far to find an example of a company’s negligence resulting in a breach or loss of customer information.

This not only damages reputation and customer trust but can also put you at risk of losing your hard-earned online reputation and search engine rankings which can be very hard to rebuild.

#10. Empower your customers

Give customers ways to interact with each other, be a part of the community on the site, and teach them how to use the products they buy from you. As an ecommerce store owner, one of the most important assets you have is your community. Your customers are your business, so building a community is a must.

When you have a customer who wants to buy from you, you’ve got them right then and there! It’s a perfect time to engage them. Offer them extra content or the ability to interact with or get information from other customers.

Final words

In a perfect world, you only form relationships with people you know and trust. And you wouldn’t take a leap of faith on a stranger in a new relationship or trust your hard-earned money with an organization you have never heard of.

High-trust relationships are the foundation of healthy relationships, whether personal, professional, or business. And it is no coincidence that with healthy relationships comes loyal customers. Loyal customers are the foundation to any successful business.