Building Trust in Your Website
If you want your website to convert then you must get visitors to trust you within seconds of them landing on your site.
Show your customers the green address bar
The green address bar is a function of all Extended Validation SSL Certificates. Your customers will now be accustomed to seeing the green address bar when they log in to internet banking, when they pay via PayPal or other payment providers. They will associate this with trust in the website. By using the same technology on your website you can piggy back on this trust the visitor already has with well known brands also using EV.
Display a recognised Trust Seal
Trust seals on a website can be a hotly debated topic. Are they actually worth anything? A study by the Baymard Institute shows that in fact trust seals are very recognisable by website visitors. Using them adds a perception of trust. That perception can be a major difference between a conversion on your site or your competitors. Choosing appropriate and well placed trust seals can boost conversions considerably.
Publish a privacy policy
This shows visitors that you understand about their privacy and that you are open and honest. I have spoken before about Increasing conversions with a privacy policy.
People buy from people
The old saying is people buy from people. This is still true today (although we also buy from brands we trust). If you are not already a well known and trusted brand you need to work exceptionally hard to get visitors to trust you. A great way to do this is to make sure customers know who the people are behind the website. Rather than make your social media presence anonymous with just a company logo make sure people know who it is that they are talking to. Engage with your customers via personal accounts. You might want to have work based social accounts and private social accounts.
Publish a refund policy
It can seem counter intuitive to growing sales to publish how you customers receive refunds. However customers will be more confident if they can see that you do handle refunds and that you have a process in place. If you handle a customers refund quickly and efficiently it is possible they will return to buy again in the future and even tell their friends.
Provide awesome customer service
Being able to respond to customers quickly and efficiently not only helps that specific customer but makes it easier for that customer to recommend you based on their experience.
