Crucial To Your Online Success... How To Gain The Trust Of Your Site Visitors

Gaining new customers online is quite difficult at the best of times, especially if you don't have a physical presence to help promote your online branch. Fraud across the Internet is now widespread, and people are becoming more and more suspicious of sites offering products online. For this reason, if you want to make your site a success then it MUST shout trustworthiness to your visitors. Here's how to do it: Use testimonials If your business isn't well established or known to the masses, testimonials are an absolutely invaluable way of gaining trust. If people can see what others think of your product or service then it gives them a pretty good reason to buy - "other people were happy, and so I will be too!" They're gaining an opinion from an unbiased source, and the absolute best way to sell a product to someone is through a recommendation. Offer a guarantee Customers will be more comfortable buying from you if they know they can return their purchase if they're not completely satisfied. Why do you think companies such as Argos offer a "14 day Money Back Guarantee"? And make sure you TELL your customers. Let them know you want them to be happy. . Gain approval Gain a seal of approval from a company such as VeriSign. This way people know that you've been approved by an independent third-party as having good business practices. Be upfront Clearly display your contact details so that people know they're dealing with a company they can easily contact should something go wrong. You'd put your contact details inside a company brochure wouldn't you? So make sure they're on your website as well. Answer all questions quickly If you take 5 days to reply to a simple query then it simply says that's how long it'll take for an order to be processed. It makes you seem disorganised, and generally un-trustworthy. Display a privacy policy on your site People will be much more comfortable in dealing with someone who they know won't spam them, or generally pass on their details to anyone without their permission. You're giving them a guarantee of integrity. Summary Basically, implement anything that points to your site being reputable and somewhere that people can trust. As you've just seen, this can be done from web design, but good old fashioned customer service is also imperative... even today! Remember: Trustworthiness = good reputation = success