Earning Customer Trust

[roban]

Probably one of the basic issues facing ecommerce is having visitors trust you enough to put their dollars in your hands to buy a product. Contact pages, About Us pages, ssl certificates are all good and necessary ways of achieving 'trust'. What are some of the things you do and how well are they working for you?

[roban]

Popular topic.

[InfoSourcing]

Some of the things I look for ...

1. Seal of trust such as BBB, Reseller ratings, Trust certificates
2. 1-800 no or online live chat so we know there are people on other side to talk with
3. Your ecommerce site needs to have and feel like a rich ecommerce just by throwing few products it wont sell
4. Shopper feedback on their purchase about the product, product reviews quite important in conversion
5. Payment methods accepted on the website, Credit cards, paypal, google checkout etc
6. Articles about your products to provide them with more information on products
7. From SEO i wld see what Page rank they have on their website .. etc etc

[Heidi]

If you don't have some of what is in InfoSourcing's post you can do other things to give a feeling trust to you visitors.

1. If you have a privacy policy you can get a TrustE logo on your site
go to http:www.truste.com

2. Google the term "website reviews" and find the websites that are reviewing other websites. You can ask the smaller review sites (ones people never heard of) to write a favorable review about your site and products, you might have to pay for it. This is kind of a gray area, and the review sites don't advertise that they do it.

If you do the review you can reference it on you site so customers can view it.

[autoecart]

I think the two most important things are the BBB seal so they know your legit and a security seal from a company like Verisign or similar so they know their info is secure.

[Heidi]

You can also get verified by Paypal and get their Verified seal. Having many of these seals can also boost the feeling of trust.

[Richard]

TRUST? You folks mean the RECOGNITION of trust (from others who trust you) In the model of TQM I am familar with, there is a foundation of Ethics and Trust well before recognition is communicated. After the following article, how can anything more than a tarnished halo of trust remain on eBay?


JAY AND MARIE SENESE Ebay Power Seller Accused of THEFT and FRAUD with supporting documentation.

Is it the fault of their automation and "jayandmarie" programs (the scheduler and the relister) or was it premeditated Theft?

It does not matter to the customer and the people he/she talks to. In this context, the smaller seller has the advantage of control. Power Sellers using drop shipments and who are outsourced to the gills are not really sellers. They are brokers. And brokers (like eBay itself, though it prefers the term "markletplace") do not care about what they sell. They abrogate control because that would take time away from their brokerage.

Unlike a Wallmart, there is not even a human face to look over the merchandise before some minimum wage lackey junks it into an envelope.

Is JayandMarie.com the next to Enron from eBay? The article suggests as much as $250,000 may have been stolen over the years from eBayers. Theft is what happens when the advertised product, paid for, does not arrive.

And, as I have stated, brokers are not interested in touching product. They move it.

Trust? How can there be trust when the buyer never meets the seller?

Just a thought for you to mull over.

- Richard

[Richard]

TRUST? You folks mean the RECOGNITION of trust (from others who trust you) In the model of TQM I am familar with, there is a foundation of Ethics and Trust well before recognition is communicated. After the following article, how can anything more than a tarnished halo of trust remain on eBay?


JAY AND MARIE SENESE Ebay Power Seller Accused of THEFT and FRAUD with supporting documentation.

Is it the fault of their automation and "jayandmarie" programs (the scheduler and the relister) or was it premeditated Theft?

It does not matter to the customer and the people he/she talks to. In this context, the smaller seller has the advantage of control. Power Sellers using drop shipments and who are outsourced to the gills are not really sellers. They are brokers. And brokers (like eBay itself, though it prefers the term "markletplace") do not care about what they sell. They abrogate control because that would take time away from their brokerage.

Unlike a Wallmart, there is not even a human face to look over the merchandise before some minimum wage lackey junks it into an envelope.

Is JayandMarie.com the next to Enron from eBay? The article suggests as much as $250,000 may have been stolen over the years from eBayers. Theft is what happens when the advertised product, paid for, does not arrive.

And, as I have stated, brokers are not interested in touching product. They move it.

Trust? How can there be trust when the buyer never meets the seller?

Just a thought for you to mull over.

- Richard

[roban]

Richard,

The link to the article returns a page not found. If you can find it again I'd like to read it.

The 'buyer never meeting seller' scenario is exactly what I wanted to discuss here because that is the norm for e-commerce. I order online frequently and always breathe a sigh of relief when my order arrives, especially from E-Bay (which I might add I have never had a problem with).

Owning an e-commerce business that has been online for a couple of years, I can imagine that customer trust (not loyalty) comes with time and the suggestions made in other posts regarding certificates, design and responsiveness.

I had recently ordered an item from a vendor I had never done business with before. The item was paid by credit card and an email dispatched to me acknlowledging the order. After 5 days I went to the site to check on the status which still said 'pending'. I called the company and found out that the item was back ordered and there was no date for delivery. I cancelled the order with a vow never to do business with this company again. Not much trust engendered there.

There are scam artists abounding on the WWW and there are honest folks trying to make a living in e-commerce (don't give up your day job) so my question about trust is directed towards the latter.

[Richard]

Richard,

The link to the article returns a page not found. If you can find it again I'd like to read it.

A search on Google provides a report from RipOffReport.com. I work in PR so I know many of these grass roots sites - usually because I counter falsehood about my clients. These sites are popular because the posters have little to gain except to vent, and tarnish the reputation of the offending merchant; which they can do if they are clearly justified (countering "spin from PR counselors), cold, determined and patient. (Trust issues also revolve around these grass roots sites: e.g. is it a store war one is reading or a bonafide complaint? The key, as your post's anecdote concerning the refund exemplifies, is total disclosure. Enron is a classic example of what NOT to do - with NOT in neon. Tylenol is the archtypical model to follow.)

A search on www.RipOffReport.com yields not one article but two. ** Sorry I did not close the tag properly. I have fixed it now and tested it.**

"Loyalty progams" do not work without trust. As I imagine 1CentCDs will find out one day. As information concerning their practices spiders across the web, there will be a snowball effect in a lack of trust. No one likes to be cheated, but especially not those without the pockets to afford it (who tend to be e-bargain shopers). JayandMarie.com's return customer program is based on an unsophisticated shipping price break for multiple items sold at one time rather than on the principles of relationship marketing over a period of time.

Unfortunately for them, their profits are derived from shipping so they are limited by their choice to fight on price rather than the communication of integrity.

- Richard.

[thestuffinder]

I have a little affiliate link website that, in order to hopefully instill trust, I do not collect any information on my home page. I also mention this in my mission statement. I also promote primarily household namebrand companies and products. I just simply offer specials in order to shop through my site instead of direct from the corporate sites. Would, by concensus of the posters of this forum, I be deemed trustworthy? Or would you be leary of a site like mine? Should I get a verisign seal of approval? Would it help my credibility on a site such as mine?
any responses would be appreciated - thanks, thestuffinder (thestuffinder.com) in case you are curious

[Richard]

<snip> I just simply offer specials in order to shop through my site instead of direct from the corporate sites. Would, by concensus of the posters of this forum, I be deemed trustworthy? Or would you be leary of a site like mine? Should I get a verisign seal of approval? Would it help my credibility on a site such as mine?
any responses would be appreciated - thanks, thestuffinder (thestuffinder.com) in case you are curious

Hi.

My professional advise is this: make sure you can control the product quality upto the delivery channel. Seals of approval (ISO 9002, BBB, verisign, etc) mean nothing to a disgruntled consumer who is likely to speak to many more friends about a bad experience than a good one (after all, the customer deserves and expects the good experience whereas the negative one is unexpected and - in the customer's mind - undeserved).

Integrity is also a cornerstone of trust. Do what you say AND SAY WHAT YOU DO. You will win more customers that way than any other way. Even should you not actually promote yourself or actively seek new customers, you will NOT lose the ones you have. However, content customers may go dormant. But, seven contented customers are better than one angry and awake one!

Earning trust is an everyday occurance not an end in itself. It's akin to making money. There is no reaching the end of building trust. There is no: enough in the trust account.

For what it's worth, I hope this helps.

- Richard