The three drivers of trust in an online brand

Trust. The ultimate deal maker or breaker. Research tells us that the presence of trust improves both a customer’s risk perception and his attitude, which in turn enhances the customer's willingness to buy online, and increases the actual intention to buy online. But how do you build this trust, all within the space of a single visit to your e-commerce site, because one visit is often all you will get from a potential lead? 

It turns out that trust in an e-merchant is built on two levels: in the brand itself, and in the actual website structure. In this post, we'll be focussing on what your brand has to convey on your site to earn customer trust. When building trust in your brand, customers will rate your brand on three things: ability, benevolence and integrity. Here's what that looks like in practical terms:

Ability

• The ability to deliver on your offer. I.e. how believable are you when you say that you provide 100% organic produce? Do you have any endorsements that you can display to support your claims?
• Expertness. Is it clear that you know your subject matter? Blogs and vlogs are a great way to show that you are in command of your subject.
• ​​Efficiency. Is it easy to deal with you? Is your online ordering process pure simplicity? Make your efficiency hallmarks clear throughout your site, but especially at crucial purchase decision points. A heatmap will help you identify where customers on your site spend most of their time (i.e. where their attention is focussed). CrazyEgg is one of the best options on the market if a heat map is what you want.

Benevolence
Research suggests that these are the three key markers of benevolence: 

• Perceived care for your customers. Is it showing up in various ways such as tailored and high-value offers, thoughtful messages, rewards worth receiving, and offline involvement in the things that matter most to your customers?
• ​Maintaining the best interest of the customer during a dispute. It is said that a man's character shines through in times of adversity. So do not think of a disagreement with your customer as a terrible inconvenience, but rather as a way to show the rest of your customers what your brand is made of.
• Availability and easy to contact. Brands that genuinely care make sure that their customers can reach them when they need to. It's not enough to have a phone number listed though. What makes all the difference is a short waiting time and an empowered staff member on the other end of the line (or email).

Integrity
Is yours the kind of brand that does what it says it will, when it says it will and how it says it will?  Brands are like people, and those with flimsy characters soon wither away. These four markers will showcase your integrity to new and existing visitors:

• Willingness to treat customers fairly. If you're not sure what fair treatment would constitute, try to remember what it felt like the last time you were a victim of a brand playing unfairly. For example, I take real issue with a brand that starts out with the perspective that I'm the guilty party when I complain. As though there's a sign up in their call centre that says "all clients are taking trying to take good brands like us for a ride".
• Value system of integrity. Let your customers clearly see what you value and how you aim to go about doing business with them. 
• Discreetness when it comes to personal information. Yes, the GDPR is now a law and brands behaving badly will sure feel the brunt of it. But there is something to be said for a brand that does not need to be legislated to be discreet. Be such a brand.
• Reliability (not letting customers down). Keep your promises, even if you have to break your back doing so. Or don't make them in the first place. 

This list is quite lengthy, but if you think about, all it asks is for brands to portray the qualities we like best in people. It's emulating the relationship your grandfather had with John, the greengrocer. Where yes meant yes, and honesty was par for the course.