Episode Transcript
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Carrie Saunders (00:01):
Today we're
talking about customer trust on
our website.
And let's be real if you'veever gone to a website and taken
a look at it and you instantlydidn't feel trust, did you stay?
Try to think about that.
So, even if your offer isamazing, if your website doesn't
immediately evoke trust in thepotential customer they're just
(00:23):
going to leave.
Evoke trust in the potentialcustomer they're just going to
leave.
So how do you make sure yoursite instantly says you can
trust me from the first click?
That's exactly what we'rebreaking down in today's episode
.
So let's dive in.
Welcome to the e-commerce madeeasy podcast.
I'm your host, Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
(00:43):
and a nine month-old.
My main goal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in thee-commerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech into easily understandable
bits to help others besuccessful in their online
business.
Whether you're a seasonede-commerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into the world of
(01:06):
e-commerce together.
Welcome back to the show.
Today we're talking aboutcustomer trust on our website
and making sure that we arecreating instant customer trust.
So let's first talk.
Why does credibility matter,especially online?
Well, even in person, firstimpressions happen in seconds,
and online is even moreimportant.
(01:27):
Visitors are judging evenbefore they read anything on
your website.
Just kind of like when we meeta person for the first time,
it's really hard for us not togo ahead and judge them just
from our first initialimpression.
It's just human nature and it'ssomething we'd have to work
towards to make sure that wedon't jump to conclusions.
(01:48):
But with websites, they seemlike inanimate objects and don't
seem like a person's behindthem, unless the website's built
in a way that exudes customertrust and exudes personality and
that there's a human behind it.
So a legit website actuallybuilds trust, and trust converts
.
That's the whole point ofmaking our website great is we
(02:09):
want to make sure that itconverts right, and we need to
do that via customer trust.
So you could have the bestoffer in the world, but if your
site feels off, you're going tobe losing sales.
So what are some of the topelements that instantly build
credibility and trust with ouronline audience?
So first, a professional design.
(02:29):
It doesn't have to be superexpensive or super fancy, but if
it's professional and clean,that is very, very much an
important part of customer trust.
Trust.
Think about a website you wentto that was really disorganized
and had things everywhere, orone that had way too many colors
or way too many fonts.
(02:50):
You probably got confused and,a bit you know, weren't sure of
the website because there wasn'tany cohesiveness to it.
Or one that didn't have anywhite space at all.
You probably couldn't land youreyes on anything to even make a
judgment.
You probably just got land youreyes on anything to even make a
judgment.
You probably just got glassyeyes and couldn't even look at
the website.
So we want to make sure we havea professional design and again
(03:12):
, like I said, it doesn't haveto be super expensive.
It just really needs to have aclean layout, modern fonts and
consistent brand visuals, whichmeans we're not mix matching
styles of photos, we're not mixmatching odd colors, for example
.
And then the next thing that wecan do to really build instant
customer trust is clearmessaging.
(03:33):
We need to make sure we'reconveying immediately what you
do, who it's for and how ithelps them.
We want to minimize anyconfusion here and really make
it be clear and loud.
Whenever we try to have ourmessaging speak to everybody,
then it won't speak to anybody.
I'm sure you've heard thatbefore and it comes true on our
(03:56):
websites too.
And so we want to make sure weare picking out that truly ideal
customer who is the reallytarget customer we want to be
working with.
It doesn't matter that thereare also other customers you
want to be working with.
When you target that one, mostlikely those other customers are
(04:17):
also going to get a sense ofrelation to your messaging.
So making sure that messagingis very clear is really helpful.
And then there are trustsignals we can add to our
website so you can have clientlogos, you could have
testimonials we talk about thisa lot on the podcast.
If it's appropriate, you couldhave some certifications If
(04:37):
you're a certified coach, ifyou're a Better Business Bureau
certified, things like that Ifyou're e-commerce and secure
payment icons also really help.
So having those easy torecognize trust signals are
great.
And then we want to have anabout us page.
We talk about the about us pageon this podcast quite a bit.
(04:59):
And have a face on it, haveyour photo on it, even if your
photo is not the prominent thingon your homepage.
Having a photo on your aboutpage is great.
If you're a team, if you're alarge e-commerce team, have a
photo of some of your team atleast Real humans helps evoke
real business.
(05:20):
So adding those photos apersonal touch what's your
company stand for can reallyalso help.
You know, make a customer trust, get a bit more clear to that
potential client.
And then we also want to haveeasy navigation.
We don't a confused mind saysno, we don't want to have clever
headlines in our navigation andwe don't want it to be too
(05:43):
cluttered.
So if a user gets lost oroverwhelmed they're going to
leave.
So we want to make sure ournavigation is very easy to
understand and is very clear.
And then I harp on this a lot onthe podcast, but contact info
or help options.
Like I said before, if you'vebeen a regular listener of our
podcast, a couple of years ago,when I was building actually the
(06:06):
website for this podcast, Iwanted to use a specific type, a
specific template for WordPressfor the show notes website and
I was really like this onetemplate and I couldn't find any
contact information for thatcompany and I almost didn't buy
the template, but I reallywanted this template, so that
(06:27):
kind of overcame.
My customer trust issue is Ireally wanted the thing, but
then what I found is, after Ibought it, I actually needed
some help and had some questionson it and it was really hard to
get ahold of them and it wasreally frustrating for me.
And we don't want our customersto either feel frustrated if
they do need to get ahold of youor don't have that confidence
(06:49):
that they can get ahold of youif they're having issues with
the product they bought, theservices they bought, the course
they bought.
So making sure your contactinfo is very clear, it is very
easy to get a hold of you or youhave some really good help
options.
But again, I really recommendat least having an email.
An email form and or phonenumber is great, and obviously
(07:11):
an address, if you can, isreally helpful.
And then let's talk about whatare some of those red flags that
really make us feel like awebsite is off, because we want
to make sure that we're notaccidentally throwing up any of
these red flags too, even if wedo.
The other list of items, thethings that build trust.
Well, we want to make sure wedon't accidentally have these
red flags in there.
So we want to make sure thatour logos aren't blurry this is
(07:35):
kind of a little bit obvious,but I want to make sure that we
also you know, talk specificallyabout this or poor quality
graphics.
If they're not crisp and clear,then that's going to feel
unprofessional.
It kind of goes with pointnumber one on the previous
section.
Or if you have very obviousstock photos that feel really
generic or cheesy I see thissometimes a lot it's really easy
(07:58):
to find those stock photos andbe like, oh, this is nice, it's
good enough, right?
You know, we want to make surewhatever stock photos we use are
actually on brand and on pointand they don't feel too generic
or cheesy.
You can add your own text tothem to help them feel more
personalized and more like.
Yours can really help with that.
(08:19):
And then if you don't have asocial proof or credibility
indicators, that can be a reallybig red flag that could evoke
that you are brand new inbusiness.
Now I do want to say if you arebrand new in business, I bet
you have done things with peoplebefore you started your
business that they could talkabout.
That helps convey what youbring to this business that you
(08:41):
have.
So if you're listening andyou're brand new, think about
previous coworkers or peopleyou've worked with.
You could even you know itcould even be.
You know teenage years, whatyou work with.
You know you may have beenreally hardworking and on time
and all those things.
So come up with creativetestimonials.
That are obviously true, but ifyou're brand new in business,
(09:03):
you can get creative like that.
If you've established business,make sure you have some of your
current clients raving about youon your website.
You know, just ask.
We find that clients don't getreviews or ratings unless they
ask we're all busy.
So make sure you're asking yourclients regularly for feedback
and for reviews.
(09:23):
And then if we have vaguelanguage or too much marketing
speak, that can be a good bit ofa turnoff.
So we want to be talking likewe're a real human as much as
possible on our website.
So make sure that we're beingvery specific.
Make sure that you're usingyour words, not somebody else's,
and if somebody's helping youwith your copywriting or your
(09:45):
marketing, make sure they haveinterviewed you really well and
really gotten to know yourpersonality so that it can shine
through the copy that theycreate for you.
Some other red flags are brokenlinks, outdated blog posts or
this one really gets me and Ialways notice this one
copyrighted dates from 2021 orsome previous year, so make sure
(10:06):
your copyright dates at thebottom of your website are
current.
Most web applications can letyou use a special code that will
get this year's year and thenyou never have to change it.
But then let's go back to thebroken links too.
This is something that you canfigure out with Google Webmaster
(10:26):
Tools or Google Search Console.
The old way is to say GoogleWebmaster Tools.
I always say that so you canuse that to see if you have a
lot of 404s on your web page.
That's a really good tool tolook at about once a month to
make sure you don't have brokenlinks you didn't realize.
And then outdated blog posts.
So we have on our main website,our BCS engineering website, a
(10:52):
long history of blog posts, butyou're going to see brand new
ones when you come to ourwebsite.
Sure, we have the old ones thathave been there for a while in
our archives, but if you go toour blog, you're going to see
fresh, new ones right now.
So if you're blogging on yourwebsite, I highly recommend you
update your blog and create anew blog post once a month at
(11:15):
minimum.
That helps show that you'restill in business and you still
care about your customers.
If you had a blog but youhaven't had a blog post in over
a year, then that can be a bitof a problem for our visitors.
They might lose some customertrust in there and then on, like
we said on the contact page, abig red flag is no way to reach
(11:37):
you.
That's what I found with thatone template website that I ran
into.
It was really hard.
I don't even remember how Ifound the contact information,
but I remember pre-buying it.
I couldn't find it on thewebsite.
I think it was via my receipt.
So there's some quick ones thatI want you to look at
implementing today.
I want you to go and look onyour website.
Is there a stock photo that youcan swap out with a real one of
(12:01):
you or a product?
I'm not saying all stock photosare bad, but we need to make
sure we're mixing them in withsome real ones of either your
products, your services or you,and then can you add a new
testimonial or a client quote toyour homepage.
Look and see what you can addtoday.
For that.
Also, do you need to updateyour footer with a current year
(12:24):
and a privacy policy?
Make sure your footer isn't outof date, and then you can run
your website through a mobilechecker tool, especially since
mobile is first is key, and youcan do this.
Actually, almost every singlebrowser out there that I'm aware
of has a mobile browser viewmode, and then you can also just
Google mobile checker tools toget you some easy mobile checker
(12:46):
tools.
So we talked a lot aboutcustomer trust here, but why is
it so important?
It is step one in theconversion.
It is step one in the sale.
You can't convert on yourwebsite if people don't trust
you, and credibility is whatkeeps someone on your page long
enough to consider your offer.
So it's super important.
This is like number one inreviewing your website.
(13:08):
It's one of the first things wework on inside our course that
we have, and also with ourclients.
I want to make sure thatcustomer trust is loud and clear
on their website, because whenyou fix that trust factor,
conversions will follow.
So I challenge you as an extrabonus, take 10 minutes today to
visit your homepage with fresheyes.
(13:29):
Would you trust your site ifyou'd never heard of you before.
If not, start small start withsome of these tips, because a
small credibility tweaks canreally make big conversion wins.
Even the tiniest tweak canreally really help.
So I challenge you to do thattoday after this podcast episode
(13:49):
.
Thanks so much for listening tothe e-commerce made easy
podcast.
If you love this episode,please be sure to share it with
a business friend and rate us onyour favorite podcast player.
That helps us reach otherpeople just like you to help
them with their website.
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(14:09):
where we love helping each otherand lifting each other up with
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click on the link in the shownotes to join our free Facebook
group and we will see you there.