Building Trust in an Online Environment
Angela D’Auria Stanton, Ph.D.
Building Trust is Critical

Marketers can build mutually valuable
relationships with customers through a
trust-based collaboration process.
–
The Trust Pyramid provides a framework for building trust.
–
You must establish Credibility to earn trust
–
The Value Exchange Process provides a framework for
building deeper relationships once trust has been
established.
According to
www.consumerinternetbarometer.us

The percentage of Americans going online at
least monthly has edged up to 67% today,
compared to 64% at the end of 2005.

While usage continues to increase, trust
levels have not (only 27% of Americans fully
trust the sites they visit). Bottom Line: The
majority of consumers still don't fully trust
that their personal information is secure.
What’s Important to Consumers?
1.
Company’s products and services
2.
Company’s treatment of customers
(77% USA – 74% EU)
(77% USA – 63% EU)
3.
Honesty and ethics
(62% USA – 48% EU)
4.
Security provided to customers
(33% USA – 39% EU)
5.
Employee treatment
(28% USA – 29% EU)
6.
Environmental concerns
(11% USA – 25% EU)
7.
Social responsibility
(11% USA – 17% EU)
Source: http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3623088
The Key is Trust!

On the marketer side:
–

Marketers must give consumers compelling reasons to share
the private information that drives many of the unique
features of the Internet
On the consumer side:
–
There are many fears that translate into consumer risks
 time risk
 vendor risk
 security risk
 brand risk
 privacy risk
Most Trusted Companies
eBay
American Express
Procter & Gamble (all brands)
Amazon
Hewlett Packard
U.S. Postal Service
IBM
Earthlink
Citibank
Dell
Source: Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe
Factors most influencing consumer trust with a company
Business
Respondents
Consumer
Respondents
Positive customer service experience
43%
26%
Length of relationship with company
27%
29%
Company or product reputation
23%
33%
Brand familiarity
6%
3%
Privacy policies
1%
9%
Source: Accenture
What Damages Trust?
Business
Respondents
Consumer
Respondents
Online security fears
74%
49%
Overly aggressive marketing,
Especially telemarketing
67%
76%
Company reputation has been
damaged by a past incident
60%
44%
Generally suspicious of corporations
52%
28%
An incident at a similar company
has damaged industry's reputation
52%
19%
Disapprove of the company's
business practices
43%
37%
Source: Accenture
Concerns about Misuse of
Personal Information
Identity theft
76%
Unwanted e-mail activity (spam)
58%
Loss of civil liberties
48%
Unwanted junk mail
37%
Telemarketing Abuse
36%
Stolen assets
32%
Public embarrassment
22%
Stalking or spying activities
21%
Source: Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe
Internet Fraud Safety Quiz
Trust
Differentiators
Basic
Building
Blocks
Trust
Differentiators
Consumer
Collaboration
Tone and Customer
Ambience Control
Fulfillment
Basic
Building
Blocks
State of the
Art Security
Merchant
Legitimacy
State of the Art Security
Security:
The 800 lb gorilla of reputation

53% of U.S. consumers say a company has lost or
compromised personal, financial or medical data

60% have experienced computer security breaches,
intrusion, hacking or other disruptions (e.g. viruses
and spyware) at home

43% have stopped a transaction when they began to
question security
Source: http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3623088
Trust
Differentiators
Basic
Building
Blocks
State of the
Art Security
Merchant
Legitimacy
Merchant Legitimacy


Encourage prospects to sample your
services through low-risk trials and
creative offers.
Sell branded products or ally your
product or service with an established
brand
More examples of allying your
product with an established brand.
Even well known brands
can benefit from this type of
alliance or relationship.
Trust
Differentiators
Fulfillment
Basic
Building
Blocks
State of the
Art Security
Merchant
Legitimacy
Fulfillment

Problems:
–

frozen computers, lack of clarity about costs, lengthy
registration processes, fighting to complete a transaction, etc.
Solutions:
–
–
Explain all costs, have an infrastructure that gets the right
product to the right buyer in a reasonable period, and KISS.
90% of Internet users expect companies to respond to
questions submitted via websites within 24 hours and nearly
60% say they want a response in less than 8 hours.
Tips for lowering shopping cart
abandonment rates



Remove most shopping navigation when a visitor
enters “the cart” so they are not distracted from
making a final purchase.
Leave customer service phone numbers, email, and
IM abilities prominently on check out pages.
Instead of saying “buy now” on a product page
button, say “add to cart.”
–
Buying is a bigger, harder decision than adding to cart.
Start with the easy decision and build the sale from there.
Trust
Differentiators
Tone and
Ambience
Fulfillment
Basic
Building
Blocks
State of the
Art Security
Merchant
Legitimacy
Tone and Ambience
A recent study by the Persuasive Technology Lab of Stanford
asked 1,500 active users of the web to rank items on a
continuum.

The credibility of a web site greatly increased with the following
factors:
–
–
–
–
–
–

The site has proven useful to you before (2.0)
The site provides a quick response to your customer service questions (1.8)
The site has a clear connection to the world (1.7 - 1.5) and lists the
organization's physical address, a contact phone number and an email
address.
The site has been updated since your last visit (1.7)
The site looks professionally designed (1.5)
Extra features such as search capabilities and multilingual support (1.2 .98)
The credibility of a web site decreased with the following factors:
–
–
–
–
–
The site makes it hard to distinguish ads from content (-1.9)
The site is rarely updated with new content. (-1.7)
The site automatically pops up new windows with ads. (-1.6)
The site is difficult to navigate. (-1.4)
Technical problems such as broken links and typographical errors (-1.4)
http://www.webcredibility.org/guidelines/index.html
Trust
Differentiators
Tone and Customer
Ambience Control
Fulfillment
Basic
Building
Blocks
State of the
Art Security
Merchant
Legitimacy
Customer Control
Trust
Differentiators
Consumer
Collaboration
Tone and Customer
Ambience Control
Fulfillment
Basic
Building
Blocks
State of the
Art Security
Merchant
Legitimacy
Consumer Collaboration
The Value Exchange Process Stage 4:
Stage 3:
Stage 2:
User-Driven
Stage 1:
Trust-Based
Marketer-Driven Collaboration
Personalization
Personalization
CONSUMER GETS
CONSUMER GIVES
Attraction
•Time and
•Performance
attention
information
•Browsing and
transaction
information
•Reactions
•Sensitive
and feedback preference
information
•“One size fits
all”
experiences
•Tailored offers •Consultative
and
problem
recommend- solving and
ations
custom
experiences
•Personalized
experiences
Customer Respect Index (CRI)

The CRI based on:
–
Site Usability – How usable is the site to a wide range of
users? This includes ease of use and accessibility
–
Communication – How willing is the company to engage in
1-on-1 communication to answer specific questions?
–
Trust – Can this site be trusted with your personal data?
This includes transparency (clarity and comprehensiveness
of privacy policies), Principles (respect for data privacy,
cookie explanations) and Privacy (respect for data privacy,
clarity and comprehensiveness of privacy policies)
Source: The Customer Respect Group, September 2006
CRI 2006 Findings – Fortune 100

Highest CRI Index: Intel, Sears Roebuck, HP, Medco
and Proctor & Gamble

Fewer companies sharing personal data w/outside
organizations

More than ½ continue to send unsolicited marketing
e-mails to those who supply personal information for
other reasons

54% clearly explain their marketing opt-out or opt-in
policies (52% do so for data sharing)
What is Privacy?

“The right to be left alone.” (Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis, 1890)

Privacy is the interest that individuals have in
sustaining a 'personal space', free from interference
by other people and organizations (Roger Clarke, 1999)

The rights and responsibilities that govern the
acquisition, disclosure and use of personal
information (Off ice of Governmentwide Policy, General Services Administration,
1997)
Privacy Has Several Dimensions

Privacy of the person

Privacy of personal behavior

Privacy of personal communication

Privacy of personal data
Information Privacy
The Current State of Online Privacy

Only 23% of companies had privacy policies that were
considered “good” for allowing users to destroy their own
information stored on corporate databases

Only 42% score “good” for their policies towards sharing of
collected personal data

72% scored “poor” for their policies towards re-using personal
data for marketing purposes

64% of companies now have privacy polices that scored “good”
on clarity and are written for the customer
Source: The Customer Respect Group Privacy Report
Top 10 Companies Rated for Privacy
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Intel
Expedia
E-Loan
Verizon Wireless
Estee Lauder (The
Estee Lauder
Companies Inc.)
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Marriott International, Inc.
Con-Way Transportation
Services, Inc.
International Business
Machines Corporation
Medco Health Solutions
Orbitz
Developing a Privacy Policy:
Questions to be Addressed
1.
What personal information do you collect from individuals? How do
you collect it? Do you have different policies for online and offline
data collection?
2.
Why is the information collected and how is it used? Do you merge
online and offline data?
3.
Do you use cookies? For what purpose?
4.
If you collect identifiable information online, can a visitor choose not
to allow your use or transfer to a third-party to use in e-mail or postal
mailings? How can a consumer exercise this choice? What choices
do individuals have with regard to data collected offline?
Developing a Privacy Policy:
Questions to be Addressed
5.
Do you enhance data collected by you with third party data? If so,
how and why?
6.
With whom do you share data? Do you provide marketing for
business partners to your customers? Do you allow third parties to
collect personal information from your web site?
7.
If you change your information policy, how will you let individuals
know?
8.
Do you allow individuals to access the information you have
gathered about them and correct errors?
Developing a Privacy Policy:
Questions to be Addressed
9.
How do you secure personal information from unauthorized access?
10.
How can individuals seek redress if you are perceived to have
violated your own privacy policy?
11.
What are the right messages for your customers? How do you tie
your data collection and use practices to the provision of real value
for your customers?
12.
What laws or industry codes of conduct regulate your data collection
use and practices?
http://www.the-dma.org/privacy/privacypolicygenerator.shtml