Start building trust: that’s where you’re losing your customers
Photo by Joseph Chan on Unsplash

Every day we not only interact with tens of people and companies but also products, apps, and websites. But how many of them do we truly trust? How many of them would you continue using if another, cheaper or better alternative came along? What is it that is helping users to pick your business over another? And what is it that is keeping you loyal to the brand no matter what?

One of the biggest factors is trust.

If you want to have a successful relationship with someone, you need them to trust you. This doesn’t only apply to relationships between people, but also relationships we form with our customers. As designers, it’s our job to help users trust the company and put them at ease when they go through the experience. In this article, I want to show you some things that your website or product might be doing that are in fact damaging this relationship. And if you want to learn more about the importance of trust in UX I highly recommend reading Brendan’s article.

Look and feel, responsiveness, usability, accessibility, etc play a big part in building trust but there are also other areas that you might feel like are not as important or are overlooked. So where are you losing your customers?

Confusing feedback

It happens to us all. We make a mistake, or there is a bug on the site or in our product that causes a problem. This is your chance to shine — give them feedback that matters to them. It should make users feel at ease, be informative, and clear. If you look at the example below, you are losing their trust, the error message is too long and doesn’t tell you what the problem is at a first glance. It actually causes more worry for them, as it puts the idea of their data being stolen in their head. The second message gives users all the information they need quickly and to the point.

Even though the first example uses more words, it doesn’t explain what the user did wrong as well as the two-liner beside it. Keep it short and snappy 🤓

Making them jump through hoops.

We all lead busy lives. We have a lot of things to do in life and we hate when things are complicated and frustrating. So when a user wants something — they want to get it fast. Your job is to remove the friction, not to create it. To keep your customers, you need to make their lives easier.

I came across this example of a system for booking gym classes from a few years ago, but I feel like it’s more relevant now than it ever was due to Covid. You can read it here but to summarize it, after paying for a service that promised unlimited access to the gym, Aga was told she can’t book it through the app. This was because she didn’t show up to two classes that month as the system didn’t let her cancel them 3 hours prior beginning of the class.

Was it easier to do that from the gym’s perspective? Of course, they will more than likely have fewer people canceling. Will people with busy schedules stay with those gyms? Probably not.

Not letting them contact you.

Experience must cultivate trust. Why? If users don’t have a way to contact you, how will they know that you’ll be there for them when they need it? If they are paying for your service, they want to be able to get support quickly. Don’t make it complicated or hide it from them. Have a clear FAQ section they can use and a way to contact a real person with any questions or problems they might have. This brings us to the next problem…

… and not letting them talk to a real person.

Bot: “Here, let us help you”

Person “Okay, I have this question”

Bot “Here is an answer to it”

Person “But… This is not what I was looking for…”

Bot “That’s okay, I’m sure you’ll figure it out! Bye!”

Person “Can I talk to a real person?”

Bot “No, but here are some more FAQ’s you can read!”

That’s how most automated bot conversations go. It’s okay to use a bot but don’t waste the user’s time if they need to talk to a real person. If your flight got canceled, you are stressed — the last thing you want to do is go through questions before you can talk to a real person. Let users connect to the real person ASAP if they need it so that they feel like you’re there for them.

lt takes a quick minute to figure out how you can talk to the real person. Doesn’t seem that long but when your flight gets canceled and you will be missing your connection flight — it feels like forever!

Fake testimonials

People are not stupid. Showcasing other people’s reviews or testimonials is one of the easiest ways to build trust but if your testimonials consist of random quotes from fake people, your users will not believe it. Make sure your testimonials have a real face behind them or are real reviews left by people who come to the site.

Fake testimonial generator. If your testimonial looks like that… then it's probably fake. And we know it!

Making content hard to find.

This one fits in with a couple of other previous points too. We all know information architecture is an important part of the user’s experience. For users to trust us, we need to help them find info that they need quickly. Whether it’s an about us page and contact info on a website or customer service chat on your app, it should be easy to find. Recently an ATM swallowed my card — the card was not with the same bank as the ATM. The ATM told me to contact my bank, while my bank told me to contact the bank that the ATM was with. I couldn’t find their contact number. I called their customer service — was told to call their card services and that I will find their phone number on their website. Long story short, I canceled my card and ordered a new one because it was such a nuisance trying to get in touch with them.

I also have an account with that bank. This experience made me consider switching.
['Kinga Adamczewska']
['User Experience', 'Marketing', 'UX', 'Service Design', 'Customer Experience']