Designing for trust

How can we design for Trust? First, we need to realise that trust is an outcome engendered by a number of different factors that we can design into our products and services.

Most companies, at some point, cite Trust as being a key thing that they want to build; with the suppliers, employees and, most often, customers.

Most of those involved in crafting products and services will, at some point, be asked to “design in things that build trust”.

Trust is vital when trying to build a long-term relationship with customers, and is far greater than any single channel — it needs to be something that is thought about across the entire customer journey. This is especially true as it is the key to successful eCommerce, and for startups trying to break into and/or disrupt an industry.

Trust is a key differentiator. As product and experience designers and creators, designing for trust is key, and it is something we should live, breathe and own. It is something that we should be the experts on with our knowledge of the customer, with our knowledge of behaviour and psychology. It is something that we should drive across the whole customer journey and design for all the time.

However, Trust is an outcome, it is not a single, explicit thing that can be added — it is made up of a number of elements that drive that outcome, and some or all of these elements need to be present to effectively engender Trust.

Like design principles, these are things that we should use during our design process, and use when evaluating our work. We should ask ourselves is what we are doing is helping to drive trust? Are we using some/enough of the key drivers of trust to build a meaningful relationship with our customers.

Ultimately we are aiming to driving quality across the experience, a quality of experience that builds trust with our customers so that they are more likely to engage with our products and services and use us instead of a competitor or alternative.

So, what are the elements of Trust?

• Information
• Convenience
• Inspiration
• Caring
• Empowerment
• Recognition
• Connection
• Consistency

Information

I struggle to think of a product or service where a customer will not need some information. Information that they require in order to achieve their goal, information that they need in order to select what it is they need.

Information that reassures them that the product that they are looking at on your site is the right one, information that helps them to choose your service over your competitors.

Information needs to be curated, contextual and relevant to the customer, and the point in the journey that they are in.

By providing your customer with the information that they need, you show that you understand them.

Convenience

All good interactions are easy, simple and hassle free. Your product or service should add to the convenience: it should make the customer achieving their goal quicker and less work than that of your competitors.

By providing a product or service that makes things easier for your customers, you show that you value their time and want to free more of their time up for them.

Inspiration

We need to craft products and experience that guide our customers throughout their journey, and challenging set ideas on what makes a great experience. We need to understand the stages of customers’ journey where they look for inspiration, ideas and guidance. Like a friend or parent, there is always a place for a Brand to play a part in this. Not a used-car-salesman-hard-sell approach, but a gentle, humble and open presentation of ideas that may help customers.

Clearly showing expertise, and sharing that knowledge, engenders trust.

Caring

From how you present your terms, conditions and pricing, to how easy you make it to access customer service, showing that you care about your customers is key.

Showing that you care, through understanding and making it easy for you to help customers recover from a problem is key to driving Trust. (Yes, I am looking at you, companies that hide telephone numbers and live chat behind a bewildering barrage of FAQ questions — shame on you!).

Empowerment

It is vital that we give customers the sense of ownership of their experience. They need to feel in control and able to dictate the pace at which things happen and the channel in which it happens.

Recognition

We absolutely must recognising customers at every touchpoint in the journey, personalising their journey, and rewarding their loyalty.

This plays to convenience and empowerment, but most of all it recognises a basis human need to be recognised as an individual.

At the practical level it means stop asking the same questions repeatedly — if a customer has given you some information, remember it, so they don’t need to go through the drudgery of repeating themselves!

Connection

Humans, as a species, at our core still have strong elements of a herd animal. Our connection with our fellow humans are important. Family, tribe, group… Keeping in touch and enhancing the human connections in life are things that we actively seek out.

To try to design that out will achieve nothing but to erode Trust. Where there is an offline element to your customers’ journey, design for that, allow for that, support that.

Recognise that we want to share, and to get feedback from our network. Understand that for most purchases and service selections this forms a key step.

Similarly, when things go wrong, customers want to interact with a human directly (in person, by phone or live chat). And yes, I am once again looking at you: companies who actively obfuscate support numbers and live chat. You are gaining short term cost benefits at the expense of trust and long term loyalty, and you pay the price with higher customer acquisition costs.

Consistency

Providing a consistent experience, across the whole customer journey, allows us to set, and exceed, our customers’ expectations.

Like meeting someone who is friendly one day and rude the next, customers seek to interact with Brands that are consistent. Consistently great is what we should aim for; but it is more effective to craft experiences that are consistently ok, that moments of magic surrounded by troughs of inadequacy and pain.

Aim for consistency over the fashionable “moments of surprise and delight”. Once consistency has been achieved, and consistently good, then aim at greatness and moments of delight.

This is the list that I use, and I encourage you to use as a baseline. If there are others that you think I’ve missed, I would love to hear your feedback.