We all love Don Draper, but your online store doesn’t need him
Traditionally, companies have had complete control over their brand. They would pay (M)ad men millions of dollars to steer the public’s perceptions of their brand. Today, however, the balance of power has shifted. Customers are more likely to be influenced by external factors outside of the company’s control, such as recommendations from friends and influencers. In fact, a 2012 Nielsen survey found that 92 percent of people trust word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising.
For businesses, fostering trust with customers has become an increasingly valuable commodity — especially in e-commerce. Surveys suggest that customers terminate (think: shopping cart abandonment) 70 percent of online purchases because of a lack of trust, resulting in billions of dollars of lost revenue.
Unlike brick and mortar stores, it’s harder for an e-commerce business to foster trust in its brand. Trust flows from experience and referrals. So, with customers relying less and less on brand reputation, how does a business build trust?
Here are four things any company can do.
1. Encourage independent reviews
According to PeopleClaim, 71 percent of customers agree that reviews make them more comfortable that they are buying the right product, and 67 percent of shoppers read up to 6 online reviews before they trust the business. Buyers are more likely to trust the word of a stranger over slick marketing copy.
Since reading reviews is a key part of a consumer’s research process before deciding whether to buy, it’s important that businesses help facilitate this. Customers should be given the opportunity to offer reviews on a product or service. Even better, they should have the ability to leave a review on an independent platform like Amazon.
But keep in mind that an unhappy customer will tell, on average, 24 people about their experience. By contrast, a customer who has a positive experience will come back to your store 9 times out of 10.
2. Offer contextual support
Not surprisingly, offering great service is one of the most effective methods of building a relationship with a potential customer and, in turn, helping to convert them into a paying one.
It’s no longer enough to merely pick a support channel and expect your customers to be satisfied — customer preferences can quickly change so it’s important to offer customers support through their preferred method, and at the time of their choosing.
In recent years, it’s become possible to offer contextual support to customers. Customers can have their question answered using whichever channel or medium they happen to be using at the time the question arises.
For example, with 71 percent of e-commerce traffic now coming from mobile devices, it’s inevitable that customers will start wanting to access support on their phone, within the context of the app or website that they’re using. They don’t want to jump out to their email or a Safari browser, and they shouldn’t have to.
3. Personalize the shopping experience
Global e-commerce sales are skyrocketing, but a staggering 94 percent of sales still take place in brick and mortar stores. That online shops can feel impersonal is one of many reasons why people prefer physically visiting a store. In fact, almost three-quarters of customers prefer a personalized approach to shopping.
By its very nature, an e-commerce store has a much harder time building personal relationships with customers. There’s nothing like an actual human being to garner a customer’s trust. That’s why offering live chat on your site, as either a means for customer support or answering more general pre-sales questions, is a great way to help bridge that human gap.
In a Forrester study, 44 percent of customers said that having a live person answer questions while they were in the middle of an online purchase was one of the most important features a website could offer.
This is probably because, at the root of it, live chat creates a connection between two people, the buyer and seller, in real-time.
4. Pass it on
Making it possible for customers to share reviews, in their own words, shows that you trust the customer to give their honest feedback. But searching for those reviews is something potential buyers have to go out and do. By contrast, what can you do to bring some of this feedback directly to the consumer, before they’re even looking? Do you have a referral program in place? This is important because a personal recommendation is 5 times more likely to lead to a sale online.
Consider, too, the power of social media. Shopify found that, in 2014, the number of e-commerce orders coming in from social media grew by 20 percent. By encouraging social sharing on your site, you can put those reviews or referral offers right where everyone is looking: at their social networks, on their phones.
At the end of the day, your company will gain consumer trust by always being there for your customers. By making an effort to get the word out through independent review sites, customer reviews on your own site, and by building online experiences that are personal, brands will find that they don’t need ad men after all, because they’ve already got so many awesome customer referrals.
Author Bio:
Abhi is a product marketing manager and team lead at Zendesk. From working on the Zopim Chat product, Abhi has developed a keen interest in customer relationships on the web. On Twitter, he’s here.
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