Building online trust is more important than ever for businesses. People tend to do more research before making purchases, and when dealing with businesses online, we all need to be aware of scams. When people visit your website, they instantly make a judgement about you, so you need to demonstrate that you are a reliable company. Establishing that trust is the beginning of a journey that hopefully ends with a sale, and there are a few simple things to make it easier. These are the best strategies for building online trust.
Display Reviews
Reviews are the first port of call for people when they are interacting with a new business. In fact, over 70% of people say that good reviews make them trust a local business more. Having positive reviews displayed front and centre on your website is a brilliant way to establish that trust right away. Not having reviews on your site immediately raises suspicion. After all, if you are a trustworthy business with happy customers, why wouldn’t you want to show that? Putting reviews on the footer of your website and having a testimonials page are both simple but effective ways to show customer feedback and build trust.
Provide Case Studies
Reviews are great for building that initial trust, but they don’t always give a huge amount of detail. Case studies are perfect for demonstrating your value to customers and showing them how you can help them. Through case studies, you can break down exactly how your business works with customers and demonstrate your value, making them a great method for building online trust.
Awards and Memberships
Recognition from official industry bodies is another great way to show that your business is trustworthy. If you have won any industry awards in the past, make sure that you shout about it on your website. If you are affiliated with industry bodies, you should provide details of this too. These kinds of organisations have standards that must be upheld by businesses that are associated with them, so your membership is like a quality guarantee for potential customers.
Contact Details
Having contact details on your site is important because you need customers to be able to get in touch. But they’re also good for building online trust, so you should make sure that they are easy to find. If people are browsing a site and it’s difficult to find a phone number or address, that immediately sets alarm bells ringing. The natural assumption is that the company is not legitimate and does not want to be easily contactable. Checking the address of a business and seeing whether it adds up is a simple way for people to check the legitimacy of a company, so having a Google Maps link on your site is always a good idea. The more contact details you provide, the more trustworthy you appear.
Building online trust should be a priority for all businesses and these simple changes are a great place to start.