Customers are the most valued asset for a business, this is because they have the power to either make or break a business. There is no purpose that a business can serve without the presence of customers. Any business is based on the foundation of some pillars and customer’s trust is one of these pillars. Achieving a relationship of trust with your customers and nurturing it is the first step towards growing a business. A customer who trusts you will invest in your business. Trust and faith go a mile in establishing a positive working relationship with the customers. A relationship based on trust helps acquire new customers and helps in retaining the existing ones.
Prompt and Efficient Customer Service
Customers are drawn invariably to companies that provide good and prompt post-sale service to customers. This inevitably improves the trust customers have with the company. One of the most common trust issues between the company and customers stem from bad customer service, once the product is sold.
Even before the product is sold, a helpful and approachable customer service team that answers all queries efficiently is likely to catch the attention of the customer, increasing the trust bond. Also, companies with better customer services tend to satisfy customers more and your company is more likely to be recommended, by a customer to a potential future customer.
Be sure to have a set of staff dedicated to performing support activities providing customers with high quality and quick responses to queries, complaints and other feedback in general. Also, ensure that the customers are provided various channels to reach out to the customer services so that in case one channel of communication fails the other one is available. Customer services can be divided based on the category of query making it as efficient and easy for the customer as possible.
Feedback, Customer Reviews, and Testimonials
A relationship is essentially a two-way lane and asking for feedback is one of the best ways of showing the customers that the company cares and helps nurture the trust bond with the customer.
Customers rely highly on word of mouth and the same purpose can be met by publishing reviews or testimonials of products and the customer experiences with the product or with the customer service on your website. As a customer, reading reviews from other fellow customers is always considered more reliable than hearing from the company itself.
On one hand, positive feedback helps increase the trust of future customers who visit the website and on the other hand, prompt replies and responses to the negative feedback give the impression of a concerned management team willing to help customers in case the need arises. This too leads to a positive impact on the customer, so it is a win-win situation.
Be sure to make the review and testimonials section prominent on your website as it helps to reassure the guests of the trust you share with your previous customers, encouraging them to trust your company.
Be clear, precise, transparent and frank.
A company gains respect and trust in the eyes of the customer if the company is. authentic in what it does and clear about what it has to offer. Do Not use advertisements with delusional prices and hidden charges or any offers just for the sake of catching the eye of the potential customers. Honesty is the basis of trust in any relationship and so is true in the case of a customer and company relationship as well. Prices, product descriptions must be crisp, precise and to the point without any over flattering claims that may later prove to be otherwise and disappoint the customer. Things and services claimed must be provided efficiently and facts must be stated as clearly as possible with little or nothing left ambiguous to interpret. Customer expectations should be set to a level that is real and achievable.
A clean look
Most well to do websites make sure that their website design is clean and uncluttered. Websites without proper design tend to cause a trust issue in the mind of the customer who may begin to question the authenticity of the website as the user interface is so confusing to navigate through. The clarity in presentation reflects clarity in thought and purpose from the company’s side and things that are crisp and clear are more likely to help build trust.
Introduce Loyalty Programs
Customers have been known to show trust in companies that are ready to maintain a long-term relationship with them based on their loyalty. This is where loyalty programs play a role. Those chosen in the loyalty program can be given exclusive offers or early access to sale prices on the day of the sale before the products are accessible to the rest of the customers. Monthly or bi-weekly emails to customers with an offer made exclusively for them and their needs can help instill trust.
SSL Certificates
Having SSL certified websites is the required cherry on top of a website that follows all the above points. Today’s customers are alert and aware of the pertaining cybercrime in the internet space, especially common when it comes to financial transactions, as in an eCommerce website. Hence any website marked as not secure by google will discourage customers from trusting the authenticity of the website. Having an SSL certificate ensures the customers that the website is a genuine one and that their data is safe and secure and hence acts as an added reason to trust the website. Also, as a legitimate website on the internet, you must ensure that the data provided by your customers is secure and cannot be breached and misused by cyber crooks for their selfish gains.
A relationship of trust is what will help establish a business and what will help it flourish. So be sure to utilize these above tips to increase customer trust and see how your customers help your business thrive and reach heights.
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