How To Gain Trust in an Online Business

Build Trust With Your Customers in Your Online Handmade Business

Business are built on trust and handmade craft businesses are no exception. Most of your customers will not know you or your reputation. Here are some ways that you can reassure them before they purchase your crafts.

Present your items clearly and professionally with excellent photos. A customer will not question the quality of your items if they can clearly inspect them online. Photos need to be clear and bright enough to represent finishes and colors correctly as well as show the fine details.

Testimonials are an excellent way to gain trust. When you receive emails from your customers on how much they enjoy your handmade items, post them to your website. Be sure protect their identity by not showing last names or email addresses.

Protect their data. Some people are still weary of making purchases online. Reassure them by providing a secure checkout, SSL, and mention that information is never sold or shared.

Predict questions and go ahead and post answers. Anticipate what people will be concerned about and set up a frequently asked questions page.

Be honest with your customers. Stick with what you know and be willing to turn down orders that are out of your area of expertise. People will ask you to build all sorts of custom handmade projects. Take on the ones that you can confidently build and politely turn down the others. Your customer will appreciate your honesty and will realize that it is not “all about the money” with your crafts.

Offer guarantees and create a policies page on your website. Your customer is not only trusting that you will send them a great item, they also want to be reassured that they will be taken care of in the event of a problem. I see many people neglecting shipping policies on their handmade items. An order is not truly completed until your items arrive safely at your customer’s home. You may not have any control over whether your package gets lost in transit, but you need to take care of this issue anyway. If the item gets lost or damaged, work with your customer directly. You need to insure your items but go ahead and take care of your customer first and then you can deal with the claim.

Good luck with your selling

Richard

Tags: build trust, gain trust, photos, secure, testimonials, trust