Establishing Trust and Trustworthiness online

Trust is a key factor to achieve long-term relationships with customers. In order to achieve this we must first maximize consumer satisfaction with all possible interactions through the website. Satisfaction is generated if the expectations about the relationship are met. Therefore we must identify the needs in the online context to order what they want in a personal and efficient way. Secondly, we must manage our corporate image. To do so, we must promote the website by focusing on the offered advantages and services. If possible, we should create links to consumer organizations and other official websites to create an image of concern with consumers’ well-being. Social marketing might also be very useful to improve levels of reputation. An improvement of the satisfaction level and reputation will increase levels of trust and consumer commitment. An important note is that consumers do not trust a website if it is not trustworthy. To be trustworthy a website should be honest, benevolent and competent. Every online presence conducted by your company should be characterized by these 3 elements. (Casalo et al., 2007)

Now, let’s take a look at the official web shop page of Everton FC. How do they create a trustworthy image so people are willing to buy some merchandising through the online shop? First of all the design of the website makes it very easy to navigate between all the different pages. The tabs on top of the web shop’s homepage give clear information about all the available pages and topics. On the left, other information possibilities make it easy to find your way.

A first quick look of the Everton’s web shop homepage gives already a trustworthy feeling, provoked by the different visible features. First of all, services and assistance is provided by the large FAQ’s page, which is divided in different paragraphs by subject. At the beginning of this page, it is also made clear that further assistance will be given when visitors can’t find the right information on the website.

Because of the commercial character of the web shop, it is a must to mention delivery and return information. Buying through an online shop is possible from all over the world so different delivery options must be available. By informing visitors about these procedures, they know what they can expect.

When buying via the Everton’s official web shop, all orders are treated by JJB Sport, a large UK sport retailer. In the Terms & Condition section, JJB Sport and the owners of the Everton football website, clarify their responsibilities when using their web shop. Contact information is another strong feature to improve the trustworthiness of the web shop. On this page they make a clear distinction about all the different contact services and departments.

Online trust is the key differentiator that determines the success or failure of companies conducting business on the Internet. It is linked to the perception of the company’s respect for customer’s privacy. Trusted websites provide consumers a secure and private online shopping experience. These businesses come up with solutions concerning leakage, unauthorized collection and misuse of private information and promote deep customer loyalty. An individual’s trust is influenced by the perceived trustworthiness, which deals with integrity, benevolence and the ability of the trustee. A stronger privacy policy leads to higher perceived trustworthiness. Higher trustworthiness leads to greater trust. (Lauer and Deng, 2007)

To earn a consumer’s trust a website has to state explicit that customer data is treated in a fair and responsible manner. Often companies use therefore data handling practices privacy policies. It is important that the user perceives this commitment as credible. To achieve this, a lot of companies add privacy seals to their privacy policies or make their website P3P-compliant. Even more important for a company to gain trust is what it does with the data and also what it does not do. Therefore the content, language and presentation should be reader friendly. (Pollach, 2007)

Privacy Policy is the most important element on a website to increase your trustworthiness. Consumers are reluctant towards handing their personal and financial information. Therefore they want the certainty that their information is only used for their online purchase. Everton FC made the information easy accessible and clearly understandable. The usage of paragraphs is key here. If you want to purchase through the website, you have to register and give some personal information. By this, the web shop creates your personal shopping experience and guarantees you privacy of your information.

This level of online trust can be increased by 2 factors. The first factor is the use of service level agreements that cover all legal and non-legal requirements of online trading. The second factor concerns the establishment of support centres that act as intermediaries in case of disputes and guarantors of trustworthiness. (Ignatiadis et al. 2006)

There are different types of interaction which can provide different levels of trust. The highest level of trust is reached with face-to-face interaction but this is impossible through a website.
(Angriawan and Thakur, 2008)

There are still some other different types of trust which depend on the personal situation with the interaction (Uden and Naaranoja, 2007):

1. Knowledge-based trust: In this case the individuals trust each other because they know each other. They are able to predict each other’s behaviour and have shared experiences. The trustor uses information about how the trustee has carried out previous tasks to predict his future action.

This level of trust is applicable when the visitor already did some purchases through the web shop, or is influenced by positive word of mouth.

2. Transferred trust: This kind of trust occurs when the trustor knows and trusts the person or institution that recommends the trustee.

When other websites related to the Everton’s football club, refer to the Everton’s web shop

3. Psychological or behavioural trust: This is based on the pre-disposition towards having confidence that others will carry through on their obligations.

The stated privacy policy and other informational elements can create a higher level of trust because visitors are more likely to be convinced of the web shop’s reliability.

4. Technological trust: The belief that technologies will perform reliably and will not be used for negative purposes.

This is also covered in the privacy policy that when giving personal information, this will be kept secret and will only be used for the purchase.

5. Organizational trust: The belief that the organisation involved will carry through on its obligations.

When purchasing a product by the official web shop of Everton, the customer believes that he bought an original item and that it will be delivered like mentioned in the terms of condition.

References:

Arifin Angriawan and Ramendra Thakur (2008) 'A Parsimonious Model of the Antecedents and Consequence of Online Trust: An Uncertainty Perspective .' Journal of Internet Commerce 7, (1) 74-96

Lauer, Thomas and Deng Xiaodong (2007) 'Building online trust through privacy practices .' International Journal of Information Security 6, (5) 323-331

Lee, Matthew K. O.; Turban, Efraim. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Fall2001, Vol. 6 Issue 1, p75, 17p

Ignatiadis, Ioannis; Svirskas, Adomas; Roberts, Bob and Tarabanis, Konstantinos (2006) 'Promoting trust in B2B virtual organisations through business and technological infrastructures .' International Journal of Networking & Virtual Organisations 3, (4) 395-411

Irene Pollach (2007) 'What's wrong with online privacy policies?.' Communications of the ACM 50, (9) 103-110

Luis V. Casalo, Carlos Flavián and Miguel Guinalíu (2007) 'The Influence of Satisfaction, Perceived Reputation and Trust on a Consumer's Commitment to a Website.' Journal of Marketing Communications 13, (1) 1-17

Dr. Lorna Uden and Dr. Marja Naaranoja (2007) 'The development of online trust among construction teams in Finland.' ITcon 12, 305-323

Kimery, Kathryn M.; McCord, Mary. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, Oct-Dec2006, Vol. 4 Issue 4, p52-74, 23p