Trust has been identified by many researchers as one of the most important issues for Internet users. According to Whitty and Joinson (2009), this can almost always be attributed to the degree of uncertainty and the element of risk that individuals experience online. However, as you may come to realise, trust has many aspects. It can refer to a personality trait, attitude or belief about the intentions of an individual, be generalised in that you can trust someone with almost anything or be specific to certain field or area (Whitty & Joinson, 2009). For instance, you trust me for psychological advice but not health tips. Trust according to Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995) is “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party”.
Site visitors can be considered as being in a vulnerable state. They are sometimes not knowledgeable in a certain area and therefore seek to gain information to help them make an informed decision or they trust that when they purchase something online that they actually would receive it. As sites provide, request and gather information, and also try to influence behaviour, support and process online purchases, and even strive to form strong relationships that would result in favourable outcomes for the site owner, getting visitors to trust site owners and their site is of very high importance.
To explain trust further in relation to sites I will use Bhattacherjee’s (2002) three main dimensions of trust: ability, integrity and benevolence.
- Ability speaks to your knowledge, skills and competence as a business or professional in whatever area. For example, as you are my site visitors, you may question if I am qualified to give advice in this area or if I am capable of communicating my knowledge to you well. Also, perhaps, you aren’t too keen on paying bills on a certain site as their online system crashes often.
- Integrity refers to your visitors’ belief that you are honest and reliable, and will act in a credible way. Are they confident that you will keep your promises and live up to expectations? Do you give them reasons not to? Do you say you will offer online discounts and add hidden charges at checkout? Do you give your word that information will be published on your website today and it shows up 2 weeks later?
- Benevolence is the degree to which your clients’ believe you have only but good intentions for them. More or less speaks to you treating your clients fairly while doing business.
What measures can you implement within your website strategy to build trust?
Detailing how visitors assess trust in sites, Sillence, Briggs, Harris and Fishwick (2006) provided a three-stage model from which website strategists can benefit.
Stage 1
This stage suggest that visitors are presented with numerous websites and will make a decision based on heuristic analysis of the website’s design. Considering this, the website design should feature characteristics that effectively exude the image you find most advantageous to your cause, for example, your brand.
A bank may want to convey their integrity and reliability to their current and potential customers online. They may express this through their colour scheme, layout and overall design. Not surprisingly though, these researchers found that not having a clear focus for one’s site and using many adverts on pages reduce the perceived trust of a site. Of course, strategists should also stay inline with web standards. For instance, having the website optimised for fast webpage loading and simple, uncomplicated navigation. We still need to be technologically savvy and consider such matters, don’t throw pragmatism out the window.
Stage 2
At this stage the model purports that website visitors take a closer look at website content. They examine the purpose of the website, its language use and tone, the level at which published content is directed and its source, and the website’s integration with other relevant websites. This firstly highlights the importance of stating clearly your website’s purpose and underlying motivations. For example, depression sufferers may feel uneasy acquiring information from a support website operated by a pharmaceutical company.
Secondly, it stresses that you should know your audience and compose your information accordingly. Lastly, take for example my site. As I am a social psychologist, by linking to other reputable websites (e.g., national/international psychological associations) in the area to offer more information sources I may increase the perceived trustworthiness of my site. In contrast, associating your site with an untrustworthy site or entity may be detrimental.
Stage 3
The final stage of the model refers to the website’s interaction and relationship building with the user so it is concerned with long-term engagement.
It is recommended that your site should have a more personal touch by trying to stay away from using generic content. One way you can accomplish this is by acquiring user information, however, this is a trust issue as well. Including more interactivity into your site is also helpful. For instance, using quizzes, forums, chat rooms and keeping visitors updated via other communication channels (e.g., email, texts, status updates). Also, you need to provide visitors with new information, features and so on periodically. Keeping your site up-to-date is of high importance at this stage.
Lastly, letting visitors have their say is also beneficial for encouraging engagement over the long-term. Reviews along with other user-generated content can make your ‘trust meter’ go off the charts so it is something I would recommend to implement in some way or fashion.
Some extra tips offered by research
- Ensure that your website has no spelling mistakes or broken links.
- Do not use unfamiliar terminology, for example, jargon.
- If you take information from visitors, please make available a privacy statement and privacy policy. Stick to it!
- Include real world elements into your design, for example, photographs.
- The verdict is out on the utility of ‘seals of approval’ but using them won’t hurt.
