Why should I trust you ?

This isn’t a branding blog, where I could talk about brands (like Virgin Atlantic or Harley Davidson) who have such strong followings that they are shown to be not just trusted, but recommended by people who’ve never owned or used their product.

This particular post is to question businesses (particularly professional service businesses) on what people think of you from your online presence.

Many will tell you that the future of the internet is to give things away for free, and arguments rage over Free, Freemium and other terms among thought leaders and behavioural economists. I won’t post links here, but search for those terms along with Malcolm Gladwell, Chris Anderson, Fred Anderson… and you can take many hours delving into this subject (I have.. I’m a behavioural economics geek, sorry!). Still, I won’t get into this debate here, I will simply give a few thoughts to perhaps help you rethink how you present your business online.

You may be the best, longest established, most qualified (sure, show all the letters after your name), but as a professional services provider (Accountant, Doctor, Architect, Designer, Plumber) at the end of the day anything you can say about yourself pales into insignificance next to word of mouth. Now, think about what people say about you. They talk about specific things you have done for them, how they felt in working with you. Your empathy, how expert you seemed and how it gave them confidence in you, how you made them feel. In short, when they recommend you, they tell people they trust you.

Does your website achieve the same thing ? Does your website establish you as a trusted source ?

Back to “free”. Think about how you can establish trust through providing core information through your website. What to you may seem basic may be, to your customer, highly valuable. Some simple ideas :

- Car mechanics, do all your customers check their tire pressures or change their oil often enough ? Thought not. Help them realise this is important. Post something up on “10 things you can do to keep your servicing costs down”.

- Physiotherapists. Every time you see a patient you tell them to do their stretches / ice / take anti-inflammatories between treatments. Do they do what you say ? Of course not, most of the time they barely remember them, let alone follow to the letter. Post something up on “working with your physiotherapist”,  giving a top list of things they can do to help you help them, and explain concisely why each matters.

- Doctors in private practice. Medical practice is, with our exploding ageing demographics, a booming business, so why commoditise yourself by filling your practice with patients with basic complaints who (as we know) are all medical experts due to the “WedMD” effect. Given them some basic self-help information on your website, show you are caring, pro-active and pre-emptive. Gain their trust and they will not only come to you just as often, but will also tell their friends to do the same. Build customer loyalty that goes beyond price.

In summary…. what may be simple and basic to you may not be to your customers.. present and future. Give them some basic information for free through your website and you will become their trusted source….and will come to you exactly because you have shown yourself to be expert, experienced.. and there to help your customers.

Oh, and as a closing thought…as you have come to my site and read this blog, you’ve formed an opinion about me, even though very few of my readers have met or will ever meet me… but have I established at least some degree of trust ?