How do you build trust?

I maybe going against the IM grain here, but I believe in building trust with your customers as being honest and upfront with them. If you barrage them constantly with pre-selling or a lot of selling in your blogs/articles. I think that could be a turn off, but that's just my opinion.

I think one can build try by consistently demonstrating, showing, and displaying honesty.

I agree. Honesty is the key. Do what you say and say what you do. Never make promises you can't keep and don't spin lines of B.S. Develop a solid business reputation and the trust will come. I find I am getting referrals from some of my clients because I do good work and am honest.
I find it also works in here. I have never done a bad job and I keep getting more work as a result.

As a VA/VAC, this has worked for me:

Documentation

Provide your clients with a copy of your business license or registration. If you have taken the time to obtain your license, it is a good look, considering you appear to be sincere about your business and doing business.

Place a Better Business Bureau logo on your website that links to your BBB profile (if you are a member and have good stats).

Do you have Errors and Omissions insurance? If you don't then you should. Not only does this protect you against unintended slip-ups with assignments, but it shows that you believe in CYA....

Be seen by including a picture on your website, blog and social media profiles. Be sure to list links to your other online profiles so that clients can follow your activity to observe for himself/herself what kind of person you are and to feel more connected to you.

You should include at least a contact number, business (not home) address and an email address on your website. This shows that you are accessible.

I've been in business for over a decade now and have
learned a number of valuable lessons on building trust.

I started off in a service-based business working with
offline clients one-on-one and learned through trial and
error how to build trust that lasts.

Some of it is not rocket science - like keeping your
promises and being true to yourself and others.

Be honest and open with your prospects and customers,
treat them how you'd like to be treated and you'll have
a foundation upon which trust can be built.
You need to find online methods to bridge this gap so
that people can see who you are and relate to you
more easily.

So, have a photo that you use so people can see you.
Even better, add some videos to the mix so people can
get a sense of the type of person you are.

Just find ways to make yourself more human and more
visible in your business and that will increase trust.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

Some great answers here. I especially like the ones about video, pictures, and sending out a personal email once a week. You also can give people a bit of a peek into your life with about pages or facebook pages.

I like to have personal conversations in my email messages - meaning I like to write them like I was writing to a friend AND I like to share info that many people wouldn't share - like actual income numbers and personal experiences.

I think Tiffany Dow does a great job of building trust if you want to get on her list and see how she does it.

By building an email list, and through storytelling. Tell your leads things about yourself, how your day went, and include some joking around also to let them know that you're a real person - and not a robot.

Promise only that you can deliver; weather it be service or product, keep the quality.
Be honest.
Ready to solve the doubts of client.
I believe these are the key factors.
As "DianaHeuser" mentioned we all are sitting behind our computer; never going to meet, so the only way trust will build up is through our online deeds.

No hide and seek and go ringa ringa roses.

Give quality content and do not be set your mind on "money money"...

Once the content or your product over deliver their taught then a trust is set!

Sharing idea or experience to the others is very important to keep relationship longer.

By determining what they (those who's trust you seek) actually need and then developing a working solution that addresses that need effectively and efficiently...and then assisting them with quality support thereafter.

I think a really good way to build trust is to write a blog and let your personality shine through. A mix of video blogs and written blogs will help your customers and list really start to trust you.

^_^ What Mike said.

To be trust you need to be consistently trustworthy.

You need to believe in and be congruent with a your
own values in everything you do... all the time.

John

Trust will come, however, it is build up over time. Be respectful to all clients and honour all your commitments.

Hi Diana Heuser,

I read your question and would like to agree with the honesty replies but wish to also say that providing real value and service should be the main focus of your business. Too many people focus on making money from others but to really earn a full time income online, you should give real value often for free to build trust before selling something.

We believe the best way is to build a list within each niche market, look after your list as if they were your best friends or family, treat them the way you like to be and eventually when you do recommend something for them to buy, some will do so?

This is how we learnt from Chris Farrell and the way we are building our own online businesses. Hope this helps you? Good luck in your endevours.

Regards,

Stephen & Jennifer.

Don't you just buy 10,000 face book likes on fiverr to build trust ? I have read a lot of posts that say getting these gives the appearance of trust

Do not break promises, however small and insignificant they may seem. Trust requires that people know you are dependable.

Being honest with your clients, care about them and not see them ONLY as pockets full of money are some ways of building trust.

My secret in building trust with my customers consists of 2 simple words...

UnderPromise - OverDeliver

It works always 100%!

Dimitris

Put up a video of yourself, no bigger trust builder than that.

I agree with what most folks here are saying. The one I"ll like to stress is videos. If you want to put a face to your business, create good videos about your business. I'm not just talking about using screen capture software. Let your smilling face appear on the video and make it very interesting. If you can create such videos most of your customers will definitely start trusting you. I hope you remember the saying that says that a picture is worth a thousand words. In the same way a video is worth a thousand pictures.

Hi,

To build trust I think you should provide value to the people...

I'm with you on the "I hate cameras."

It is difficult to establish trust over the phone in the short amount of time we talk to potential customers.

Most of my calls involve a few conversations to close the deal - not just one call. Every call gives me (and the client) more of an opportunity to establish trust.

I am sure you know attitude and the way you speak matters. If you talk fast and have a pushy script, I'm not going to like that much.

I can imagine talking to you and having a pretty good "crap detector", my crap detector wouldn't go off when we speak. Rather, I would bet that you are someone I would trust to do business with.

This transcends all of life so it surely includes business:

Say what you mean and do what you say you're going to do.

That's almost as simple as the Golden Rule itself, which adapted for modern times might go something like this:

Whatever you do you do to youself.

What client expect is complete knowledge on any chosen field of service. Client should feel he is properly guided to take any action pertaining sales and service. Client needs always, proper suggestion when he approaches, fulfilling customer expectation in terms sales and service

Be honest, if you are selling as an affiliate, tell your customers your an affiliate, but explain why you should be trusted!

Hey Di!

I create trust the way I like to see it earned by myself. Here are some tips I like:

1. Watch who you JV with and for what reasons. This is probably the #1 complaint I see - incestuous promotions. In fact some people will unsub from you if a launch occurs and you're one of a dozen or so marketers promoting some spammy product - aligning yourself with other spammy marketers is never a good idea.

2. If someone you're promoting screws up, even if they're a friend, discuss it. I have had people and products I ADORED who I had to call out because they screwed up big time. If I kept my mouth shut, well then I'm just as guilty as they are.

3. Forget the old fashioned advice of creating phony "cons" in reviews. You know - the old, "The only drawback I see of this course is that I was SO happy, I wanted more! Eye roll. Give some real drawbacks you encounter - if the product owner TRULY cares and is one of the "good guys," they'll appreciate the gutsy feedback.

4. Don't promote stuff you aren't trying. If I ever promote something I haven't used, I state that fact upfront. But 9 times out of 10, I buy the product or tool, and implement it myself before I refer others to it.

5. Teach ethical things. If you teach scumbag methods on ONE thing, how am I to know where ELSE you'll be a scumbag?

6. Don't cave when other people tell you to change. If I signed up to follow a marketer and he's telling it like it is, building trust with me, and some people call him out about it and he caves and decides to be all PC, then I wouldn't trust that person. They're far too easily influenced and not comfortable with the way they do business.

7.Be just as blunt about the mistakes YOU make as you are about other people's. I screwed up recently when I called out a marketer for doing something and then I (not someone else) found out I'd taught the same thing awhile back. So I blogged about it - kicked my OWN ass for having once taught that and blogged about how I was happy Id gained more insight so I had a different outlook now.

8. Be VERY protective of your list. I don't care if I can rake in the money being in a JV or teaching something - if I feel it's bad, I protect my list. I warn them about products, people, and strategies, too - even if there's not JV on the table - just because.

Of course, gaining trust doesn't mean you have to be blunt or what some take as rude, like I am. I'm just me - I know several people who are sweethearts and who have gained my trust, like fellow Warrior Peg Baron or Jackie Lee, for example.

Tiff

by giving away something of value for free!

Knowledge, over delivering, and answering your customers emails as fast as you can builds trust. Honesty.. integrity, being professional, friendly, and having pride in what you do.. don't nickel and dime people.. builds trust.

If you are selling any service " a lot of testimonial, feedback and review" will help you get trust. For example, see any gigs on fiverr or a thread with many testimonial. They easily get order because the new visitor already trust them by judging previous buyer feedback.

It isn't the only or the "right" way for every market, but creating marketing materials that demonstrate that your expertise, and freely providing some of that expertise, are ways to plant those seeds of trust.

If your traditional services site also contains a knowledgeable and/or articles, and/or a blog that provides educational content, all the better.

People will generally hire someone that has taught them something valuable.

Treat your customers how you would like to be treated. Be credible, honest and helpful.

I think publishing a business address and phone number helps to build trust. I always publish my phone number in client or potential client email communications.

It's easy just replicate what you do in real live and do it online.

People will find some trust in you if other people trust you. You could write some guest posts or do some offers at a rate someone doesn't need to trust you to hire you for whatever, then get them to write a testimony.

Ultimately, you have to be YOU. Don't try to be someone you are not. Be completely honest, upfront & trustworthy. Show your subscribers/customers how you run your business by offering them MASSIVE VALUE. There is nothing more annoying than people who are constantly trying to flog the latest shiny thing to their list. Hope this helps...

very broad question could write a book on it . Simple answer build a email list strike a balance between quality free content and sales promotion . Start a blog with good content use information that comes from news sources ( you can set up RSS feeds and google alerts and then moderate what you feel is relevant and quality news then add your own commentary ) you will quickly establish trust and authority within your niche. Also get in front of the camera whether you like it or not . Get a half way decent webcam nobodys good at this first but with practice you will get better. People trust a human face more than text or slide shows .. So practice it ..I have a Kodak Zi8 cam I bought on ebay for 75 buck it allows my to take HD video I have a small tripod so I can use it as a subsitute for a webcam because the footage is very clear and looks more professional

We agree, it's the whole package of openness and honesty, reliability, consistency, being yourself, providing genuine value for money and for free, appearing on camera, extraordinary customer service, showing in what you say, write and do that you put customer interests ahead of yours, not hitting up your list too often even with non- promotionall correspondence, providing prompt refunds without hassle, making good in various ways if something you deliver has bugs but they don't want a refund, and lessee... did we forget anything about what it takes to be perfect...

MBDirect

Great question Diana....

Id have to say, even though I dont buy much of his stuff, Frank Kern definitely comes to mind.

The way he shoots his videos in a non formal way, whether it be just him walking around at the beach, or driving his car somewhere - the way it seems so personal. He gets his message across without the hardsell.

I remember watching one of his videos a few years ago and I was hooked. It felt like he was talking right at me - and after watching a 7 minute video, I felt like he was my best mate.

Go above and beyond with your customer service efforts. Answering questions, and occasionally giving advice for free - instead of pushing them towards a product to buy.

....anyone here ever read "Trust Agents" by Chris Brogan?

To gain trust, you should able to keep your words. As a marketer one should able to stand on his point and able to support all the details he is telling about his service. There's nothing more comfy than working with honestly and integrity.

TRUST is the currency of the new economy I think.

But its simply just help people for free and give away some of your best stuff, that gets results. That will give you a FAN for life. D

Honesty and integrity in everything you do. Much less common than you would think.

Kick the "promises are meant to be broken" trash out of the door and deliver what you can with complete honesty. That's how you build trust. Another catalyst would be if there are already people that trust you in whatever thing that you're promoting -- may it be a product, or a service. Man, this thread DOES make you want to look for a good book about it. x3xsolxdierx3x, thanks for the suggestion!