The #1 Reason Someone Will Deal With Your Business

by | Feb 7, 2019 | News

There are plenty of factors when someone is deciding on whether or not they will deal with your business.

However, the number one factor is TRUST!

A consumer’s trust in a business is generally earned over time by providing great product and services.

In the online world, it is often more difficult, taking people longer to trust you. We, as consumers, are full of scepticism and are much tougher to crack. At the same time, whilst it has become more difficult to build trust with consumers, it is a factor that is increasingly valued by consumers when making decisions.

Research studies have even found transparency & trust as a more important factor than price for consumer decision making, with Label Insight finding 73% of consumers favoured transparency over price.

There are different things you can do to help build more trust online.

Here are our top 5 ways to assist in building trust with consumers:

Social Proof

Social proof isn’t something new, it’s a concept that has been around a long time. It is is the epitome of trust in the online environment. An excellent example of social proof is nightclubs allowing the line outside to build up to create the illusion of being a popular location. The more people lined up, the more people feel the allure to want to check it out.

This can work the same in the online world. Encouraging engagement on your online content creates this same effect. If someone is scrolling on Facebook and sees a post that has hundreds of likes and comments, they are much more likely to check it out, than a post with no like nor comments.

Reviews & Testimonials

This is similar to social proof. People will check what customers are saying about your business and make decisions based off of that. Reviews can either foster a positive opinion of your business or can utterly ruin your brand’s reputation, with 93% of local consumers making the black & white decision based off of reviews (Bright Local 2017). According to Spiegel Research, displaying reviews on your website can increase conversion rates of 270%!

Setting up a smooth & user-friendly system to have your customers to easily leave reviews, can significantly impact the state of your online presence. You can generate a direct link to your Google listing’s review, to allow for a simple access point for your customer. Sending this out in a text or email after their interaction with your business is an excellent way to produce meaningful review & testimonials. It is equally important to have a system in place to handle any negative feedback or reviews you may receive. Responding & publically offering assistance or compensation, are great ways to deal with this.

Real Photos & Videos

In a world full of Nigerian princes, European lotto jackpots & NBN scammers – people want to know they are dealing with real people. Make sure you are putting out plenty of real photos of your business and your product and service. This will allow people to know you are real and your business is real. This can be done easily through social media – regularly share your team, customers, work & premise! On your Google listing, publishing these images also acts the same way.

Providing Value Through Your Content

This may seem obvious – but if you are actively trying to help people, people will inevitably trust you. Do this with the content you put out. Listen to your customers and provide content that will make there experience better, making sure they get more value from your customer experience. Handy hints, tips, facts and information that is tailored to your target consumer, will help to build not only trust but also authority and reputability.

Awards & Articles

Enter some local & national awards – why not? Awards are a great trust factor when people look at your website and see you have been recognised for certain awards.

This goes the same for getting articles published in major publications. There is a reason all the major companies have ‘as seen on’ on their product and services pages. These are trust factors. If you are unsure about how to go about entering awards or getting articles published, there are companies that specialise in doing just that.

In no way are we suggesting to try and fake these trust factors. Trust can just as easily be lost if you are not genuinely providing great products or service. However, if you are, these trust factors can help show your brilliance to the world, and create more raving fans.

If you need some help with curating your online presence were are more than happy to have a chat about some tailored options for your business!