Think back for a moment to the last time you bought something a little expensive, something where you needed to pause and consider whether you wanted to go through with the purchase. What steps did you go through to make that decision? What was it that convinced you to buy?

I’d be willing to guess that at some point in this process, you realised that the purchase seemed like a good idea – and that you trusted the seller enough to move forward.

How about your potential customers? What steps do they go through when they consider placing an order with you? What will be the thing that convinces them to do it?

One of the steps they may be taking is visiting your website for more information.

That makes your website an opportunity to build trust.

There are many things that can help build trust on your website, and one of these can be achieved with remarkably little effort: testimonials.

A testimonial could be as simple as a short, positive piece of feedback from a customer who has purchased from you before. Maybe they found your products to be well-made. Maybe they found you easy to work with. Maybe they noticed the extra effort you put in to make sure that things ran smoothly for their order.

What a shame it would be if potential customers never got to see this feedback! Seeing the positive experiences that your previous customers had with you could be the very thing that reassures and convinces others who are considering buying from you.

What a shame it would be if potential customers never got to see this feedback!

The suggestion to “add testimonials to your website” – can seem like such an obvious idea, that there’s almost no point in mentioning it. But – as any business owner knows – knowing something and actually doing it can be two different things – and even while knowing that it’s a good idea, many companies still don’t actually have testimonials on their website. Do you?

If you’re just getting started with testimonials, you might be thinking: “If I don’t have a huge number of them to put on my website, why bother?”

My suggestion would be: start with three. One looks lonely. Two looks incomplete. Three looks like a complete set, which makes it a great place to start, if you want to begin building trust through testimonials.

Testimonials show that you have a good relationship with your customers – and they have good things to say about your company. That builds trust.

Eventually, it’s best to embed testimonials into your process. When you complete an order, make it part of your standard process to ask the customer for a testimonial – a short piece of feedback on how it was working with you. Ask for their permission to post it on your website and promotional materials, and you’re ready to go! Of course, taking action is the thing that can really help your business – and you can take action on this today. Here’s my challenge for you: contact one previous customer (yes, just one!) to ask for a testimonial – and you’re already moving in the right direction – building more trust – and making more sales.

Once you’re moving forward with testimonials, there all sorts of other things can be done to continue building trust.