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Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Credibility Online

Fri, Jun 8, 2012

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Although there are a lot of companies that conduct business online, one thing that some owners take for granted is that it requires a lot of faith on the consumer’s part to put their time and money into a business where there is rarely any interaction beyond email exchanges and PayPal transactions.

This means that company owners have to go above and beyond to do all that they can to establish a mutual trust and then build on it. There many ways to improve your credibility online, but here are five that will not only attract customers, but have them return again and again for your services.

Have a good website. Online, people are not meeting your charming disposition (at least in person), but your website presentation. Therefore, your website needs to be aesthetically appealing, user-friendly, sleek and interactive. Make sure to not have a ton of copy, but at the same time, enough content for visitors to get the gist of your company and the products that you sell.

Have good products. It may sound like a given, but as you’re still growing your company, you need to make sure that each customer is treated like the only customer. This means that you can’t afford to have any order be less than superb. So, your products and/or services need to be in excellent condition and if you’re shipping out items, so does your packaging. Why? Because another annoying thing is to wait for an item to arrive only to have to send it back due to it being broken or leaking. Sometimes the hassle of that alone is enough to keep a customer from placing another order.

Have great customer service. One of the biggest mistakes with e-commerce is that while there are easy ways to submit your payments, it can be a bit “hit or miss” when it comes to finding someone to answer your questions in a timely manner. There aren’t a ton of smaller companies that have a customer service chat option, but there are a lot of them that have those submit forms. Honestly, they’re a bit annoying. Have an actual email address on your website and offer up a time window of how long people will have to wait for a response (like 24-72 business hours). And make sure that in that time, you actually do.

Have contests, giveaways and discounts. Stores have coupons. Online stores have promo codes. Bottom line, when conducting online business, a surefire way to keep people interested is to have contests, giveaways and discounts from time to time. When it comes to contests and giveaways, you can either post them directly on the homepage of your website or submit them through a newsletter that you email exclusively to your repeat customers. As far as discounts, there should be specials offered on a fairly consistent basis. Either it can be in the form of a promo code that customers can submit on their transaction screen or an amount that you simply tally at the end of their order if there is an option to conduct business over the phone.

Have a grateful disposition. When it comes to the amount of online businesses that are in cyberspace, to say that there is a lot of competition is a major understatement. That said, remember that even customers like to feel appreciated; after all, they didn’t have to conduct business with you, they chose to. So, make sure to send thank you notices with each order, respond to each and every correspondence and send out occasional surveys about how you can make your business better. These are all ways to turn visitors into customers and customers into longtime consumers.

Post provided by Amit Hooja

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