Our buyer behaviour has changed significantly over the last decade. We no longer just look for one source of information to make decisions about what we buy. Instead, we research it ...or as many of us now-a-days, refer to it as "googling" it!
Googling is just one of the tests or filters that we use when deciding whether the product or service that we are considering is best for us and at the price we are happy to pay. We also look for feedback from many other sources.
Recent research shows that when looking for information about a product or service, 71% of us look for information on a search engine, 67% of us still look for personal recommendations, 56% of us look at price comparison sites (and I expect this figure will have significantly increased in the recent economic climate); 47% of us look at customer opinion on the seller's site or benchmarking sites (such as trip advisor) and finally, 57% of us simply place our trust in a well known brand or retailer.
That's a lot of research that we now do before we even step a virtual foot onto your website!
You may think that if you market off line to build your brand that your prospect will be loyal when they visit your site. Unfortunately this is not even true. In 2007, a survey showed that after their online research activity, over 47% of people looking for a large electrical item selected a different solution to the one they had originally intended to buy.
The same was true of financial services products where 39% of people in the same survey reported that they had also changed products.
So what is the magic ingredient that are people looking for?
The main key is trust. Yes, good old fashioned trust.
The questions they are consciously and subconsciously asking themselves are: Do they like you?(your site, your reputation) and Will you be fair with them (Are you charging them a fair price? Will you look after them if they have an issue?) Will you entice them to come back? Will they be hounded by you after the sale?
If this is not something you have thought about, here are a few questions to consider:
When was the last time you communicated with your customers past and present to find out what their needs and wants are?
How do you know whether you are doing a good job?
Do you know what your reputation is?
Do you know what your customers are saying about you?
Do you know how to find out?
The answers to these questions alone could provide some major clues on how to build your "trust" reputation to keep your customers loyal and build relationships with new customers.
Nicki Bury - Haybury Marketing - Marketing for Profit, Knowledge for Life. www.hayburymarketing.com
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