Customers today are more dubious and skeptical than they have ever been before. They are a lot more careful about what they buy and where they spend their money, which means that businesses need to work a lot harder to gain their trust.

By doing this, you’ll secure customer loyalty, which will allow you to expand your customer base further and grow your company. The problem is, gaining this trust is not easy. It can’t be done quickly or through the use of gimmicks. Instead, you must do it naturally. With that in mind, here are fifteen ways to build customer trust.

1. Ask Customers For Testimonials

Customers are a lot more open to believing other customers than they are the companies themselves. After all, consumers rarely have an agenda when they share their thoughts on a product or service, while businesses need sales to stay afloat.

For this reason, you should ask your customers for feedback every time you make a sale. When this feedback is good, it attracts other customers to your business, but even bad feedback is helpful, as it allows you to improve.

2. Create A Reliable Product

Many people buy on emotion, rather than logic. This can cause big problems when the product that you provide isn’t up to the standard that your customers expect.

Anyone who purchases this product will immediately begin to distrust you and may even share their thoughts online, which will decrease your credibility. A simple way to ensure your product’s good quality is to put it through a thorough testing process. You should also allow focus groups to give it a try.

3. Offer The Right Solution

You may have a great product, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the right solution for everyone. Your customers’ best interests should always take precedence over making a sale, which means that, if you can’t help a customer, then you should guide them to someone that can.

Proposing a product of your own, when you know it won’t fully deliver the outcome your customer is hoping for, is very unethical. You’re almost sure to be caught out, and, when you do, it will cause issues.

4. Make Sure You’re Available

When a customer or potential customers need to reach you for one reason or another, they should be able to do so right away. This is especially true during hours consumers know businesses are typically open.

If this isn’t possible, it shows these people that you don’t care what they have to say, or, worse still, that you’re hiding something. Because of this, you should add your contact details to your website and consider adding a chatbot for 24/7 assistance.

5. Build A Consistent Image

Maintaining a consistent image ensures that customers and prospects know exactly what to expect from your company. It shows what you stand for, who you are, and how you can help them, all of which earn their trust in your brand.

There are many unique ways to improve brand consistency, such as by purchasing virtual phone numbers that spell out words related to your business. You should also have the same designs across all materials related to your brand.

6. Stay Active On Socials

These days, almost everyone in the world has one form of social media or another. This is why it’s such an effective marketing tool for businesses. As well as being free, it works well to attract followers and build visibility. Both of these factors give your company credibility.

However, your social media also gives customers an idea of who you are and what your business is, which also go a long way to maintaining consistency. This will only work, though, if your post often.

7. Work On Your Security

Every customer who enters your business, whether it be a physical store or an online one, deserves to feel safe. If they don’t, this makes trusting you nearly impossible. Keeping that in mind, it’s your job to improve your security and show those shopping with you that they are safe. You could add CCTV cameras to your shop, for example, and display trust badges on your website. You also need to make sure that you have the right insurance coverage, just in case.

8. Respond To Crisis Quickly

You could have all the security and protections in the world, but there’s still a chance that something could go wrong in your business. Whether the blame for this lies with your or someone else, you need to act as quickly as you can.

Hiding the problem from your customers, or, worse still, ignoring it altogether, will only show that you’re not to be trusted. You need to be open and honest with everyone and explain exactly what it is you’re doing to handle the situation.

9. Provide Detailed Product Information

Those buying products online are a lot warier than those doing so in a brick and mortar store. After all, when you online shop, you never really know what you’re purchasing until it arrives on your doorstep days or even weeks later.

This is why you should provide a detailed description of every single product you have. You should also show clear images of these items from every single angle. The more information that you give, the more legitimate you will appear.

10. Give Away Free Samples

It doesn’t matter whether you operate your business in the web world or the real one; customers like to try before they buy. This means that, if your product isn’t quite what they are after, or doesn’t meet their standards, they haven’t spent any money on it.

With that in mind, you should consider giving away free samples to those who want them. This isn’t possible for every type of business, but, if you sell something you can offer in smaller quantities, then it can be rewarding.

11. Honor Your Returns Policies

When free samples aren’t an option, the very least that you should do is honor your returns policies. Quick and simple returns policies are a sign of good customer service. This is because it shows that you care more about the consumers themselves than you do about their money.

It also communicates the confidence you have in your product, as you’re happy for customers to send it back if they don’t like it. Make sure that you advertise your policies clearly on your site.

12. Update The Blog Regularly

Like social media, blogging provides the opportunity for you to show customers and prospects who you are, without coming off like a pushy salesperson. It’s also a great marketing tactic, as it improves the search engine optimization of your website.

This content will also establish you as an expert in your industry, which goes a long way in getting consumers to trust you. However, this is only effective if you update your blog regularly with fresh, informative, and unique content.

13. Don’t Make Impossible Promises

Before telling customers that you can do something for them, you need to really think about whether or not what you promise them is actually realistic. There’s no use in playing up what you can provide only to disappoint your customers later.

This will make you seem dishonest, which will ruin your business’ credibility. It’s much better to underpromise but try to deliver more. You should do everything that you can for your customers, but don’t make impossible promises.

14. Share Your Human Side

All consumers tend to distrust businesses at first glance. After all, the ultimate goal of each and every one of them is to make money. However, customers are more open to trusting people. This is why one way to overcome any doubt is to share the human side of your company.

A great place to do this is your About Us page. On this area of your website, you should focus more on yourself and your team, rather than the products. This allows customers to get to know you.

15. Act Like A Professional

There’s a very big difference between being human and being unprofessional. Consumers trust humans, but they’re a lot less likely to trust you if you conduct yourself in an improper manner. This means that you need to toe the line between the two.

You can make jokes with your customers, but you shouldn’t be offensive. You can also make mistakes, but you have to own up to them and improve. You should also ensure that your staff are trained to do the same.

Trust isn’t given freely, especially by customers. It’s something that you need to work to earn. No gimmick or scheme is going to make the process any easier, but trying one could derail what little progress you have already made.

Unless customers trust you and your brand, they’re not going to buy from you, which could spell disaster for your company. Hopefully, with the advice above, you now have some idea of how to build trust with your customers in a natural way.