7 Tips on How to Build Customer Trust and Loyalty

In the variety of online stores, customers are afraid of being deceived. If you want your online store visitors to be your loyal customers, you must first trust them.

How to Build Customer Trust and Loyalty

With these simple steps, you will show that you can be trusted.

1. Visibility

It is important for every customer to feel that there are people like him sitting on the computer, not robots. The customer is interested in who you are. That’s why e-commerce companies use the “About Us” page on their websites, which provides information and pictures about the company, its founders and employees.

Since customers do not have the opportunity to approach and touch the product while shopping online, you need to make the product as “visible” to them as possible. In this case, the product descriptions and video clips that present the product or the process of its creation will help you.

2. Availability 

As a customer, I have access to the company. It is possible to see that in addition to phone numbers, there is online support and service on the company’s website. The customer understands that in case of problems or issues, he can easily contact the company’s employees, and the company, in turn, does not avoid questions.

Thus, the availability of the company inspires confidence in customers.

3. Professionalism

Customers judge by facts, not words. You can use these two methods to show the professionalism of the company:

• Create a website with a competent structure, easy to understand and tasteful content, as the site creates the first impression of your company. Trust the site to specialists or choose a system of online stores that allows you to use modern thematic design and tools.
• Show your work, write about your collaborations and partners on a separate page. If you’re lucky enough to be in a newspaper, magazine, or report, post it on your website without hesitation.

 Under no circumstances should false information be posted.

4. Reputation

Marketing specialist Dan Kennedy says:

What others say about your product or service is 1000 times more convincing than what you said, even if it is 2000 times better said.

People trust the experience of others. So let your customers express their opinion.

• Shoot video clips with customers.
• Conduct customer surveys.
• Post customer pictures on the site when purchasing your product.
• Post customer reviews on the site.
• Ask customers to rate your brand or service.

5. Security

People who shop online today are much more vigilant because they are afraid of being deceived. As a guarantee of site security, they look for the letter “s” in the address bar of the site (they prefer the address https instead of HTTP).

And what’s the difference between HTTP and https? Reliable websites protect their servers using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which is the standard security protocol. To do this, the webserver needs an SSL certificate. The online store system provides you with this certificate, which allows your customers to click the “Order” button without hesitation and without thinking about security. 

6. Responsibility

Business writer and expert Susan Ward urges businesses to look at the site from a customer perspective.

Every customer is afraid that the product may not arrive on time, be damaged on the way or may not live up to its expectations. It is important for customers to see that the site is responsible for their products and services.

Specify the delivery date of the order clearly on the website and do not delay delivery.

Specify the period and conditions under which the customer can return the product.

If you do not fulfil the order, apologize and send the money back.

7. Quality

The buyer becomes the customer when his expectations regarding the quality of the product or service are justified. If you want to have a reliable and long-lasting business, you must be able to maintain the quality of the product or service. And false information about the quality of a product or service will take away from you not only the present but also the potential customers, as bad news and information are transmitted at the speed of light.

Customer trust can be lost in minutes, and gaining and maintaining trust requires long-term work and dedication.