Marketing

Building trust in the online world

Do you purchase stuff online? Books, clothes, music, movies, vacations: you name it, they can all be purchased online. However, the online economy hinges on one item - trust. It was important in the brick and mortar days too. But then you could see the person face-to-face, hold the product, see it and arrive at a purchase decision. You cannot feel the texture of the cloth you are buying online, you buy it on trust. You cannot hold that camera in your hand, you buy it on trust.

It takes a very long time to establish that trust. Building trust starts from within your organization. This is the way brick and mortar companies did it:

1. Trusting yourself: This is the first and foremost step. You may be an employee or you may be the CEO of the company. If you do not trust yourself to do a good job, how can you expect others to do it? Every little detail matters: Are you on time for meeting? Do you meet your commitments? Are you ethical in your dealings? Are you fair and just? Check your standards; it determines how good a worker you are.
2. Trusting your peers: The next to follow is to trust your peers to do their job. I once worked with a small business whose liaison rarely kept up his meeting commitments with me. I had to constantly remind him. When I receive this treatment, I wonder how this person treats clients. Always remember, the people you work with are your internal customers. If you cannot meet your commitments to your internal customers, how can you meet your commitments to external customers?
3. Trusting your product/service: It is important you have trust in the product or service you offer. If you do not trust it and believe in it, it will show in your sloppy performance. If you think this only applies to sales and marketing, think again. Ask a developer to write code for something s/he believes in and ask the same developer to write code for something s/he does not believe in. You can easily make out the difference. On a recent layover at Heathrow, I noticed a gentleman observing the aircrafts with pride. It was amusing at first, but then I got curious. We got chatting and he told me he worked for Boeing. “I help build them”, he said. He was in the accounting department. I thanked him for teaching me an important lesson in ownership of work.

The above three interacted in a complex way to ensure customer service. If it was good, the business built customer trust. It takes time and considerable effort to ensure your business builds trust. Customers determine your trustworthiness based on your past. Testimonials are very useful in establishing that initial trust. With traditional brick and mortar companies, face-to-face made building trust easier.

I have a question I would like to ask my readers. Would online businesses need to do anything different? How will they earn that trust when there is no face-to-face interaction? How valid are testimonials then?