Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM MAY 2023 46 C an I trust you?" Usually unstated, it's the question all potential buyers ask. The trust question is visceral because it's connected to our primal survival instincts. If we search online for a couch, only to find that we're being cyberstalked for a month afterward, the question shifts from "Can I trust you?" to "How can I get rid of you?" The cyberstalking chase game breeds customer distrust and causes customers to run away. While cyberstalking can be an effective sales conversion ploy, especially for commodity products, it works against building long-term customer loyalty. But it doesn't have to be that way. Here are five positive strategies that will help you earn your potential and present customers' trust. • Create Remarkability. Word of mouth is considered the most potent form of marketing. When friends tell their friends good things about your company, everybody's view of your company changes and you reap the benefit of close consideration when they're shopping. But getting referrals isn't easy. Your company must be better than good – it literally needs to be remarkable. Being remarkable lives in your customers' eyes and minds and hearts. They decide what's remarkable, based on how you make them feel. It may sound simple, but making people feel unusually good about their decision to buy from you is the first step toward remarkability. By delighting your customers – by anticipating their needs, wants, and unfulfilled wishes – you can create remarkability. • Create direct interaction. "I'll trust it when I see it" is what people are thinking about your company while they're still viewing it from afar. People are good at trusting something they can see, feel, and sense for themselves. If they trust their senses, they'll trust you. Creating direct interaction can take the form of offering people a sample product, a free trial period, or an exploratory Zoom call. The more you give people a direct experience of your company, product, or service, the more they'll trust their senses and trust you. • Build-in transparency. Restaurants that show the kitchen behind a glass wall are literally being transparent about how they prepare the food you're about to eat. They're showing, without actually saying it: "You can trust us." When a customer can see the process or framework you use, and understand your metrics and/or know your intentions, they're more inclined to trust your company. • Gain public acceptance. "I read about your company in the New York Times." It doesn't have to be the Times (it won't hurt), but in the marketing world this is called "unaided awareness." It's the trust that's built by knowing a brand's name and reputation before you've actually been introduced. Name recognition tells the potential customer that the market has accepted who you are and what you do. It builds trust through public recognition. If the New York Times has good things to say about your company, I'm more likely to trust you. Unfortunately, it works the other way around, too. The old saying, "All publicity is good publicity" is a myth, as all savvy marketers know. • Obsess over the collective effect. The collective effect of a brand is the culmination of the presentation, stories, symbols, and offerings that a company has made. Often referred to as brand touchpoints, it accounts for each and every way a customer can interact with your brand. The cleanliness of your store, the intuitive nature of your software, the clarity of your offering and your pricing models, the feel of your products when people use them, the thoughtful and consistent symbols and designs that represent your brand expression – all of these add up to a collective effect. People trust what's consistent, because it creates a sense of safety. Companies that obsess over the intent and design of each and every brand touchpoint will build a collective effect that gains the potential customer's trust, because they have created safety through consistency. Trust is the social and emotional currency that all businesses deal in. No trust equals no customers. No trust equals no employees. No trust equals no sustainable business. Once you've earned the customer's trust, you'll have permission to sell to them, and you can stop chasing them around the internet. STOP CHASING, START TRUST-BUILDING: 5 WAYS TO EARN CUSTOMER TRUST Steven Morris On Brand Steven Morris is a brand, culture and leadership advisor, author, and speaker. Over his 25+ years in business he's worked with 3,000+ business leaders at 250+ global and regional companies. Discover: https://matterco.co RO "

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