Step 5. Build the Trust Necessary for Success

Your small businesses can build a website and get on the Internet for a few hundred to a few thousand dollars in the first year. But to succeed, you need to establish trust. You must be seen as both believable and attractive. Trust is the essential lubricant that allows business transactions to take place -- in the physical world and in the cyber world.

Large companies spend tens of millions of dollars to build a brand. This expenditure buys name recognition and the confidence that goes with it, a favorable position or association in the mind of the consumer, and a belief that a company with so much invested in its reputation will not disappoint its customers. Investments in brand development pay rich dividends.

But smaller companies just can't afford the money it takes to establish a national brand. Instead of relying upon an established reputation, they are required to build trust and confidence from the moment a customer lands on their site. Big companies have their brand, but small companies have the advantage of a personal face and personal character to the business -- and connecting personally can be a very powerful sales motivator indeed!

Show Photos of Yourself or Your Staff

For years I've displayed a photo of myself on my website. I went to a professional photographer to get as good a photo as I could. But, frankly, I'm not handsome enough to win customers. I don't display the photo out of vanity. I show it for one reason: so people will perceive me as a person, and therefore begin to establish a relationship with me through my writings.

In a sense, you are what makes your small business different from all the rest. You are your own brand.

If you are a woman, you might not want to show a photo of yourself, but perhaps a group photo of your staff or sales team. Professional photos taken for this purpose can project the personal service you show your customers. They put faces behind the names. And people connect with people. Give people the choice of doing business with a cheerful, competent person rather than a faceless corporation and they'll choose the person every time.

Wells Fargo talks about "your personal banker," Wal-Mart features its own employees in national TV ads, and MicroWarehouse.com's "brand" includes a picture of one of its phone order-takers.

If you have an existing brick-and-mortar business, show a photo of the building, too. Even if it doesn't look spectacular, it demonstrates that your business isn't just a cyber-vapor pretending to be an online establishment.

Show Photos of Happy People on the Front Page

But don't stop with photos of yourself and your staff. Instead of animated letters and blue buttons, provide centers of human interest on your front page. Find photos of happy people who are part of the demographic target group you've determined are your best customers. To see how this is done, take a look at Wal-Mart. http://www.wal-mart.com You can secure royalty-free people shots for your website from PhotoDisc http://www.photodisc.com for about $30 each -- a small price to pay for attractive models and excellent photography.

Shoppers will relate to the people they see at your site. If they look confident and at ease, it will help to lessen a shopper's natural distrust of unknown Internet shops.

Tell the Story of Your Business

To build trust you'll also want to tell the story of your business. You may think that shoppers won't care about the details. But it's precisely these details that show your store is for real, that your values of honesty and hard work underlie your whole business. I've read some business stories that really made me WANT to make a purchase because I liked the people I was reading about.

Write in a Chatty Manner

Let the big companies write in their pompous, elevated, third person, slightly distant tone. But you need to write in the same way you would talk to a shopper if she were directly across from you. It'll help you build a bond of friendship and trust that will produce sales.

Display Testimonials from Satisfied Customers

As you develop satisfied customers, e-mail them and ask whether you can use for your promotional materials the kind words they've written. Nearly always they'll agree. Then excerpt two or three sentences for the testimonial. Make sure you use a variety of topics -- one about your great customer service, another about your selection and prices, a third about how you took special time to explain something, a fourth about how they recommend your site to their friends, and a fifth about the promptness of your e-mails and shipping. Feel free to remove extraneous phrases or clauses from the final testimony, but make sure you don't change the wording or intent of the key items you leave in. Use full names with their permission, where they live, and ideally, a phone number to contact them. (Listing an e-mail address will subject your top customers to a barrage of spam.)

The personal touch is a powerful way to build trust.

Make Credible Presentations

Most customers distrust products promoted with hype and unbelievable claims. Though exaggeration can be effective with some shoppers, with many, wild claims will backfire. The storeowner needs to present products in such a way that all of a shopper's anticipated questions are answered in a believable manner.

Provide Full Contact Information

Make it easy to find full contact information -- address, phone, e-mail address, etc. Too many sites restrict ways in which potential customers can ask questions and make contact. This breeds frustration and distrust. Consumers are wary of online stores that hide phone numbers or mailing addresses. The shopper wonders, If I can't get in touch with this storeowner when I have a question, what happens when I have a problem after the sale? Why DOESN'T he accept phone calls? I, too, am wary of companies I can't contact through traditional communications channels.

Reverse the Risk for Your Customer

One of the reasons people hesitate to place an order in your store is the risk to which they feel they are exposing themselves. If you can reverse this so you the merchant takes all the risk and your customer takes none, you'll substantially increase the number of orders completed and expand your profit at the end of each month. You build trust by taking the risk on yourself.

For many years, Sears has clearly displayed its simple policy: "Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back." Do you think this policy has lost Sears money over the years? Hardly! It is one of the reasons people shop at Sears in the first place.

Small business storeowners are often afraid to make strong, iron clad, no-questions-asked guarantees for fear that unscrupulous people will take advantage of them. And a few moral rejects will take advantage of them. But overwhelmingly, those who offer a money-back guarantee have found that it creates much more business than it causes problems.

Make sure you have easy-to-find links all over your site to your ordering policy page. You'll need to include:

• Return Policy
• Guarantee on Products
• Shipping policies

The clearer you are, the more confidence you inspire. The more generous you are, the more trust you build. And remember, trust is the one essential business element.

Trust-Building Associations

A final way to establish your business credibility is to associate your site with names known for their integrity. Each of these organizations requires some kind of investigation or accountability from you. In exchange for accountability and some money, you can use the organization's logo on your website.

Here are some to consider:

• BBBOnline. The online version of the Better Business Bureau monitors how member businesses handle complaints, and provides a reference to consumers on what kinds of complaints have been registered. In addition to their "Reliability Seal" program, BBBOnline also offers a "Privacy Seal" for both kids sites and general sites. http://www.bbbonline.com
• TRUSTe. Helps monitor privacy statements and policies. http://www.truste.com
• BizRate.com. After an online sale, buyers can rate the merchant on BizRate, and the aggregate of this rating scale is open to shoppers on the site. http://www.bizrate.com

If you implement the suggestions I've made, you'll be investing dozens of hours improving your website. But the pay-off will be substantial. You'll get customers who otherwise wouldn't consider you at all and you will have laid one of the essential paving stones on your road to Internet business success.