The July holidays are now behind us if you live in Canada or the USA and now that we’re feeling rested or perhaps partied out it’s back to business. I am looking to the fall already to ensure our next round of projects are ready to start on time with everything prepared and organized. Having a plan feels good and our clients feel at ease knowing they can rely on us to do what we said we’d do when we’ll do it.
Reliability is one of the most important things our clients want, they place high value on it. Now we get that trust is earned in a working relationship however, as a business we must show we are trustworthy right from the start. A website is just the place to begin a great relationship.
How do you feel when you come to an outdated website with stock photos, poorly written copy and incomplete information? Would you make a purchase on a site that looks skeptical? My guess is you feel anything but a sense of trust.
48% of people determine their top factor in a business’s reliability is through their website design. That’s almost half of your visitors! A website that looks sketchy could potentially lose you a ton of new business.
It’s my opinion that sketchy or poorly designed websites only get looked at seriously when the visitor already has a connection with the business offline or a trusted referral from a friend.
Here’s a real-life example from my online shopping experience. A friend of mine suggested purchasing a horse blanket from a shop in Ontario a few winters ago because it was such a great deal on a name brand item. I followed the link and immediately felt worried that putting my card info on the site was going to lead to some sort of leak of my money or identity theft. I asked her if she’d used the site before and she had many times with no issues and since I trust her 100% I ordered the blanket. The site still looks sketchy but the company is great. I often wonder how many orders they miss out on via the website simply because it doesn’t look trustworthy?
Have you experienced trust issues on any websites either for a purchase or making a decision to hire?