Is your website inspiring trust?

design-your-website-inspire-trust

Every day, we put our trust in people we’ve never met.

We trust that when we’re crossing the road, the car approaching the crossing will stop.

We trust that the bus driver getting us to work hasn’t been up all night on a bender, compromising his judgement to drive safely.

And we trust that the person who serviced the lift in the building at work has done a good job.

Trust plays a huge part in all sorts of decisions you make.

How are you signalling to people that they can trust you and your business?

People do business with people they trust.

Makes sense, right?

We all value our time, our money, our reputation. We don’t want to work with people who don’t give us the right trust signals.

I’ve been enjoying Rachel Botsman’s discussions around trust. Rachel is an author and speaker and a world-renowned expert on trust and technology and what this means for life, work and how we do business.  Her TED talk The currency of the new economy is trust talks about how technology has opened up a whole lot of new businesses that base their business model on trust. Think eBay, Airbnb and Uber.

trust-is-the-currency-of-interactions

Even if your business isn’t quite as tech-dependent as these examples, most people have a website to promote their business.

One of the main tasks of your marketing is to help people know, trust and like you.

The trust process starts with your website

For most organisations, their website is the place where they tell their clients and prospects what they do and how they offer value.

But even if you don’t rely on your website for actual leads or sales, it’s often the first place people go to check you out.

They head to your website to:

  • see if you know what you’re talking about
  • check on your qualifications and experience
  • find out what other people have said about you

They want to know whether you have the ability to understand their challenges.

They want to be reassured that they can trust you before they send you an email or pick up the phone.

According to article in Forbes magazine, these are the six building blocks of trust:

  1. Reliability and dependability
  2. Transparency
  3. Competency
  4. Sincerity, Authenticity and Congruency
  5. Fairness
  6. Openness and Vulnerability

So, how do these relate to the design of your website?

How can you design your website so it helps earn the trust of people who visit your site?

7 ways you can display trust on your website

  1. Your website should look professional, have an appealing design and describe your services clearly. It’s essential that your website also looks good on mobile devices. Check that your website designer has used a responsive design.
  2. The words on your website should clearly describe how you can help your client. Use language that’s approachable, yet professional. Your ‘About us’ section is really all about how you can help them, not about how proud you are that your company is 100 years old.
  3. People relate to other people’s stories, so use case studies. They’re an excellent way of telling a story about how you’ve helped someone.
  4. Testimonials and reviews that leave a positive ‘reputation trail’ will reassure people that you’re a reliable and skilled provider. If you can include video testimonials, even better.
  5. Be generous and educate your audience. Having blog articles or e-books that display your expertise and offer value rather than the hard sell, helps you build credibility. Plus, it will give prospective clients confidence you’re the right person for the job.
  6. Make it easy to contact you – being accessible is an important first step to establishing any sort of business relationship. You might include an obligation-free offer as a first step towards commitment.
  7. If your business involves online transactions, make sure you’ve got the security in place to reassure people their credit card and personal details are safe.