Building a brand is one thing, with clever marketing that appeals to the right target audience you can make people aware of who you are. However, making that brand trustworthy in the eyes of potential customers is a lot more difficult. There are ways to do it though, and if you can manage it, then you will sell a lot more.
Don’t Sell
It may seem rather counter-intuitive since all businesses exist so they can sell to their customers, but if you want to be a trusted brand, you need to ensure that your engagement with your customers isn’t all about selling. Of course, you can (and should!) advertise, but try to do it in an unobtrusive way. It might mean choosing to have a smaller advert rather than a full page one or to only advertise on your social media pages every other day and spend the rest of the time interacting with your followers.
Have A Personality
Giving your business a personality is a great way to make people trust it more. This can be as simple as including a recognizable face alongside any advertising you do. It could be a member of your team, or even yourself if you want to be the one that people immediately think of when thinking of your company. Be careful if you choose to use stock imagery instead of a ‘real’ person; other brands can use the same imagery, and this can weaken your own businesses personality.
Transparency
Being completely transparent and letting your customers understand how you work and why you do the things you do will definitely help to foster a sense of trust. One way to ensure that this happens is to include honest and open reviews and testimonials of your services on your site. You can use Superdesk to keep all of your reviews in one place and use them when you need them (with the reviewer’s permission) to show new customers how other people rated your business.
Equally, if you make a mistake, you need to be honest about it and apologize. Far from pushing people away from your brand, this will make people think well of you. It is when you brush complaints aside or won’t admit any wrongdoing that you will find your trustworthiness suffers.
Listen
A company that listens is a company that people trust. It shows that you genuinely care if you are paying attention to what your customers are saying and what they are asking of you. Therefore, whenever someone gets in touch with you through email, social media, a blog comment, telephone, or any other means of communication, it is essential that you respond and acknowledge what they are saying.
Taking the time to address any concerns or thank them for any praise that they might be sending your way will do more for your brand’s trustworthiness than almost anything else. It shows you are a real person, that you are doing your best, and that you want to help your customers whenever possible.
