How To Build Consumer Confidence & Trust

Before your customers even consider purchasing your golf product, they need to TRUST you first. Start building trust today by providing your golf customers with an authentic, transparent, and secure online experience.

Authenticity

Start with a great intuitive design. Make it clear and easy for your prospective customers/customers to navigate through your site. What is the end goal of your site—if it’s to make a purchase, what is the path of information your customers need to take get there?
Communicate the value of your golf product. It doesn’t take copious amounts of content to convince a prospective customer to buy your golf product. Think about three things your customers value (Time? Money? Relationships?)—and explain how your golf product delivers.
Keep it simple. We know you understand your golf product inside and out. Your prospective customer may not. Content should be clear and simple to understand—who are you, and what is your golf business all about?
Don’t be a stranger. Put a face to your golf product. Include bios and images of the people who work at your golf company.
Skip the stock. Your customers know the difference between generic stock photography and actual images. Stick to imagery that highlights your golf product, and forget the fake course scenes.
Link to any third-party references. Has your golf product been reviewed or referenced by any popular website or company? Have you won awards or any other worthwhile recognition? Include links, quotes, or logos to these outside sources to boost your credibility.

Transparency

Show your golf product in action. By including images or video, not only will prospective customers gain a better understanding of how your product works, they'll back up the messages in your content. If your product is “convenient”, visually show how easy it is to pick up or carry on a bag. If your product can add distance or shave off strokes, use a current customer as a real example of how your golf product delivers these results.
Show me the money. Be clear about the cost of your golf product. When a price is not included, consumers tend to think a product is too expensive, and are typically unwilling to take a next step in the purchase journey to discover this information.
Provide detailed product information. Before customers add your golf product to their shopping cart, make sure they have a very clear understanding of what they’re purchasing. Does it come in multiple colors? How much does it weigh? Is it for righty’s or lefty’s? Answer these general questions (or any frequently asked questions you might get), and illustrate the pieces of your product—where do my wrists go? How do I turn it on/make it work, what is this hinge for?
Make it easy to get help. Provide a clear “contact us” or method for getting more information, or if your customers need help prior to or after purchase.

Privacy and Security

Utilize a familiar payment gateway. Make it easy for your golf customers to purchase your product—and feel confident while doing it. Gateways like PayPal, pay with amazon, or Authorize.Net, are widely known and provide a simple process for your customers.
Provide a secure connection. SSL is an encryption system that helps protect the privacy of data exchanged between a customer and a website. If you have an e-commerce site that takes credit card information, customers want to know that their sensitive data is safe.
Include logos/icons from trusted companies. If your golf company is using encryption services or a payment gateway as mentioned above, let your customers know! Include icons or clickable logos for those services to show your customers that your golf company is committed to providing a safe and secure experience online.
Opt-in. Help your prospective customers feel in control of your relationship. Provide an opt-in option throughout your site, and offer your current and prospective customers something of value—upcoming events, sales, newsletters, blogs, etc.
Articulate how your company will use the customer’s information. So you collect your customers’ contact information upon checkout or via opt-in for email coupons/news. Then what? Be very clear about how you intend to use the information you collect. Add a statement near the submit button that describes what your customers can expect from you.
Include guarantees. You believe in your golf product. Consider backing it up with a guarantee. This now becomes a low, or no risk investment in your product. But, at the same time, your golf company better make it easy to back it up, or run the risk of damaging any trust you’ve built.