The internet is full of nearly anything you could imagine, and there aren’t many things you couldn’t find if you tried. Sadly, the websites available to you aren’t always good, and some are even made maliciously. It’s for that reason that we simply can’t trust every website that we come on to, as you can’t know if it’s legitimate or not. For business owners, guarantee safety and security for your customers by acquiring website monitoring tools.
Having your business set up in such a place can make it difficult to stand out as a legitimate and trustworthy entity. So what can you do to improve your image and build trust as an eCommerce site? Well, you need to make sure you’re ready to put in the work. Automating everything isn’t going to cut it, as customers are going to want to talk to someone genuine if they have any worries or questions.
Using social media
Social media is a huge step in the right direction when it comes to gaining trust for your business. A faceless website without any kind of public interaction should set off alarms in a customers’ head, as that’s exactly what a business shouldn’t be. You need to get yourself out there and let people see that you’re working and selling things to customers actively. Interact with customers on the platform and find out what they think – leave it open for more customers to witness!
Declining fraudulent customers
If you’re going to grow as an eCommerce business, then you need to make sure you’re not taking part in bad practices. Due to the amount of illegitimacy and fraud that you can find online, you’re likely going to see a lot of it interacting with your business. Finding ways to prevent these from interacting with your business is going to help improve your trust and overall image. Things like carding are a serious issue, and a lot of businesses deal with them with things like captchas – as they’re often done en masse. If you’re unsure, you can click to find out: What is carding?
Allow feedback and customer interaction
Another great way to encourage trust for your business is to openly interact with customers on your website. If you have some way for people to leave reviews or ask questions, as you can see on every Amazon product – it can be a great way to see that people aren’t just asking questions to the void. No one wants to buy from a business that has no reviews and no sign of customers, as it likely means that customers are unable to comment or that their comments are hidden. Encourage customers to leave reviews about what they think of the product!
Even if you don’t want to have these reviews on your website, a lot of customers will look for reviews elsewhere, and that can lead to a lot of confusion. If your site matches the name of another site that sells poor products or has bad practices, your reviews and their reviews can get mixed up – and your reputation will suffer for it.
Get personal
Don’t be afraid to speak with your customers. Of course, it can be hard to interact with every single customer that visits your store, but a lot of people won’t be inquiring with you. Having chat options on your site can be a good way to get in touch with your customer and tell them everything they need to hear before they buy something. Again, it’s more about being there and present as a face for your business, as it makes your business seem a lot more human.
You should also have more than one way for a customer to contact you, like having phone numbers or email addresses openly available on the website. It helps to reassure your customer that there’s going to be someone there if they need them.
Be transparent
One of the most important aspects for any business, but particularly online businesses is being transparent. The moment the customer hands their funds over to you, they can be completely left in the dark to guess whether or not the money has been received, the product is being sent, and when it’s going to arrive. It’s not going to inspire trust if you don’t let your customers know what’s going on with their purchase, and you should aim to be in touch with them as soon as they’ve ordered. An automated service should be in place and you should consider checking it often to make sure it’s functioning correctly.
If you are looking for additional monitoring resources, check ITRS Group.