Increasing Your Online Credibility Part III

Everyone says what they DO on their website. “We fix computers”, “We sell homes”, “We make BBQ sauce”, etc. This is important – people need to know what you do or sell. However, it does little to increase your credibility. People know what you do, but do they trust you to do it well? To do it at a reasonable cost? Within a reasonable time frame? Not likely. The problem is that anyone can say anything on the internet and it’s up to us as consumers to sort out the well-made stuff from the junk, the great services from the lousy. Marketers have crossed the trust line so many times in the name of profit that many of us have become slow to trust. How can you build trust just with the words that you use?

Say What You DON’T Do Interestingly, if you tell people what you don’t do, you automatically increase your trustworthiness in their minds. This has been proven in psychological studies. For example, if you say “We fix Mac computers, we don’t fix Windows computers,” you will increase your credibility with both Mac AND Windows users. Mac users will think, “wow, they specialize in Mac – they must be good!” Windows users won’t be your customers but they will be glad you didn’t waste their time. And they will also think that you must be pretty good at Macs because you clearly specialize. It’s not just the fact that you specialize that makes both camps trust you more. It’s also that they feel you are more honest because they see that you are willing to turn away business that you might otherwise get but not do as good of a job at.

Many people are reluctant to tell you what they don’t do because they feel it will limit their potential business. You definitely shouldn’t say you don’t do something if you really do. However, most businesses can make a distinction between what they offer and what they don’t offer. By telling prospects both, you build trust. Tune in next time to see what else you can say to prospects that will cause them to trust you and want to buy from you.