Building Trust One Day at a Time

There are certain behaviors that we are trained to look out for, and when we see them, tip us off that something is not quite right. Most of these are cultural and can vary widely because what’s acceptable in Texas may be out of sorts in Canada.

Online businesses have all the challenges of a business establishing trustworthiness plus the added hurdle of communicating over the Internet.

Here are 5 Ways to Build Trust on a daily basis:

1. Be visible – not just your brand but you. All the people behind the brand need to be visible because we don’t trust software the same way we trust people.

(For all of you rolling your eyes and thinking “you haven’t dealt with bad customer service lately”, that attitude is exactly why your biz should be standing out as the exception!)

It starts in little ways. Just saying “I’m here to help” and delivering great help is the first step to building trust.

2. Keep a steady presence – in the same way that you wouldn’t follow around a restaurant that moved locations 6 times a year, followers aren’t going to stay connected if you domain jump every time you think of a new name for your homepage.

Building a niche site or landing pages is fine, but moving your entire website too frequently looks flighty.

A huge part of trust is being reliable and if you can’t be located that will impact your trustworthiness.

3. Don’t disappear – it’s easy to get excited about a project and let it take your full focus but ignoring the social and network aspects of your online business is dangerous. It’s simple, most people don’t have the time or energy to keep up with all their contacts. So if you just stop showing up they’re not going to hunt you down to find out what’s the deal. And if people don’t remember you’re the best video editor in town, they won’t trust you with their content.

4. Communicate frequently – going out of town for a long weekend? Let your closer clients know. Computer crash? Let your team know. Anytime things change or you make a shift let people know. This will not only combat the fear that you’re hiding something but also establish a degree of transparency (btw, it took me 20 minutes to think of that word… how’s that for transparent?).

5. Regular marketing is key – if marketing your services and programs only happens when you need money, then you’ll appear desperate. By sending regular updates, offers and information about your business (in social media, newsletters, blog posts), you’ll establish a routine presence.

Establishing trust isn’t something that can happen instantly, so if you want leads and clients to believe in you, believe that your business can solve their problems (enough to commit to making changes and write the big checks), then you have to build it over time. The great news is that if you can master these things, then you’ll stand out from all the other businesses out for instant gratification.

Action Step: How are you building trust with your audience this week? Focus on one of the areas above to get started!