When it comes to building trust with your customers, it doesn’t matter how attractive your content is, or how quick your page speed loads on mobile screens. If visitors doubt your website and how trustworthy you are, their first impression has already been made in the first few seconds, all your efforts to build trust will be wasted.
People’s guards go up when it comes to marketing and sales. According to a new HubSpot Research study, doctors, firefighters and teachers came out on top as the most trustworthy people. But only 3% trust salespeople and marketers.
Here are six elements that you should have on your website to increase a customer’s trust in your business:
- Make It Personal
- Professional Web Design
- Testimonials and Reviews
- Badges of Trust
- Risk Reversal
- Be Transparent
Let’s Make It Personal
One of the best things you can do to get people to trust you is by allowing them to get to know you personally. You can do this by:
- Displaying pictures and bios of yourself and the other employees of the company on your About Us page.
- Show videos of people talking about themselves; include relevant work experience that demonstrates expertise, and also personal snippets that make your staff more human (e.g. hobbies, why they chose the job they are in, if they have any pets, etc).
- Sharing the history of your company, celebrating anniversaries.
Customers are far more likely to trust an individual they can picture and relate to than an unfamiliar faceless company, so by establishing yourself as a friendly and approachable business will help you to build customer trust.
To maintain this dialogue, you can also create a FAQs page, which will allow you to personally address any common concerns and/or queries.
Professional Web Design
First impressions are everything, which makes a professional, high-quality, unique website essential. Low-resolution images, spelling errors, bad user experience design (UX) and poor a web design could damage your image as a trustworthy, experienced and credible source.
A well-designed website with a sleek logo, professional images, fast loading speed and that works flawlessly on all devices, from desktops to mobile phones, shows potential clients that you’ve invested in your business will give increased trust to your brand.
This will reassure your online visitors that they can trust you to deliver a professional service in line with your web image. If you are looking for a brilliantly designed website with a professional look that delivers a great UX design, that will help you build trust in your business, we’d love to help.
Testimonials and Reviews
Testimonials and reviews are a great way to build trust with customers as they offer an opinion of someone outside of the company. Testimonials are positive comments from existing customers who have already purchased products from you or used your services.
There are many established review platforms available to be found online – such as Trustpilot, Google and CheckaTrade along with many more, depending on your industry. Reviews can be good or bad comments left by customers who have used your service, that is shared online reviewing the quality of service, product, delivery and much more. Reviews are great proof for people considering your products/services that everything you are promising on your website is true.
Badges of Trust
Another way to build trust is to get third parties to vouch for you and the services that you have on offer. You’ve probably seen them many times, and you may not have even paid attention to them. Endorsement Badges are a common type of endorsement that signifies you can be trusted and that your site is secure.
Google Partners is a globally recognised badge for advertising agencies. The Google Partner badge shows that specific Partners have passed Google Ads product certification exams and are up-to-date with the latest product knowledge. In other words, they earned it.
Financial Conduct Authority, for example, are responsible for regulating a sector which plays a critical role in the lives of everyone in the UK and without which the modern economy could not function. From children’s ISAs to pensions, direct debits to credit cards, loans to investments – how well financial markets work has a fundamental impact on us all.
Depending on your industry and sector, look into badges of trust that you can obtain to further ensure trust in your customers.
Risk Reversal
For e-commerce shopping, visitors face a degree of uncertainty when they’re online shopping. In addition to our previous examples of building up clients trust, you can employ a technique called “risk reversal.”
Risk reversal is making an offer that transfers some of the risks onto the seller, instead of it all being on the buyer. This adds a level of comfort and trust to the online shopping experience.
Examples of offers include:
- 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
- Free Trial
- Low Price Guarantee
- Free Shipping
Offers are similar to trust badges, so make sure that your offers are displayed prominently. Where possible it is best practise to ensure that almost every page, if all have the offer displayed.
Be Transparent
And finally, the main point that we are exceptionally proud of here at Simpsons Creative. Be transparent. Be as transparent as possible on your website so that visitors know what to expect. Doing so helps reduce the amount of customer service enquiries you receive. You want your potential clients phoning you for the job knowing exactly what quality of product, service and delivery they will receive.
Transparency is vital for creating trust because it helps eliminate any suspicions your customers might have about the value of what you’re offering. By laying out the truth about your products and services, including their limitations, you’ll prove that you aren’t trying to hide any flaws or defects.
If you want to find out more about Simpsons Creative, why not head to our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn where we keep you updated with all our latest work. Want to speak to us about a new project? Shoot us an email info@simpsonscreative.co.uk or call us on 01279 755555.
