Your online appearance is very important to your customers. Whether you are an offline, bricks-and-mortar organisation whose website is little more than a calling card, or a fully-fledged dotcom business, giving the impression to your customers via your website is critical.

You probably wouldn't buy a valuable object, such as a television, from someone who knocked on your door and sold their wares from an unmarked white van. But when customers visit real-life shops, they know, at least, that you have the resources to pay the rent!

The situation is very different online, however. Setting up a website is, relative to that, a quick, cheap and easy affair. Customers are therefore likely to be highly critical when they view your website, checking for clues that show you up to be unprofessional, unreliable or even criminal.

Whatever kind of business you run (even if you really are a fly-by-night fraudster out to make a quick buck!) you should be trying to present to your visitors an air of trustworthiness, reliability, quality and integrity. Giving customers hints that you are a good company to do business with is not difficult, but it will take some time and thought.

A Real Business

Your customers need to know that you are a "real" business. Most people are reluctant to buy from a company that consists of one person in their back bedroom. Even if that describes your situation, you should give your customers the impression of a more sizeable company.

Firstly, if you are a one-man band, describe yourself not as the owner, but instead use a title such as "General Manager" or "Head of Marketing". This gives an impression of a higher power who exists above and beyond you (but of course, you haven't lied: if there's only one of you, you're presumably responsible for everything).

You should reflect this in your email addresses. Instead of just having yourname@yourbusiness.com, have info@yourbusiness.com, sales@yourbusiness.com, support@yourbusiness.com and so on. All these addresses can redirect to the same mailbox, but they will give the impression that you have many employees and departments.

Don't make the mistake, incidentally, of using free email addresses such as Hotmail or Yahoo!. They look as cheap as they are, and might suggest to your customers that you started up your business on a whim. Most domain name registrars can offer you email addresses which will redirect to your chosen address, or your hosting company will probably offer POP3 mail boxes.

On the subject of contact details, make sure that you also display a landline telephone number and a physical address, as well as your email address. If you work from home, you may want to mark your address as "mailing only" to avoid unexpected visits.

Gaining Trust

Now that they believe you're the real deal, you need to show your customers that you are also a pleasant organisation to do business with.

Providing a guarantee of some sort is a good start. You could just restate the customer's rights in your guarantee! There is no need to promise the earth. Just show your customers that you are willingly accountable.

Asking visitors to give you their contact details is a delicate business. A good way to encourage customers to hand over their details is to join the Better Business Bureau, TRUSTe, or a similar group. These companies offer certifications and seals which you can place next to your contact details submission form. They significantly increase customers' inclination to trust you with their details.

You should also have a privacy policy. Make it clear, both in your privacy policy and in your general "mission statement" or your About page, that you are committed to the protection of your customers' confidentiality and that your employees are held accountable for their behaviour.

You should also post short profiles with pictures of key members of staff, as well as your offices or any other locations for your business. If you work from home, have a picture of yourself working at a computer or talking on the telephone, ensuring that your workspace is neat and that it doesn't look like a home office.

Finally, don't lie. The truth will always out. Don't make up testimonials, put up images of employees or offices that don't exist, or misrepresent the quality of your goods.

A Sense of Quality

Your customers also need to believe that your products or services are of excellent quality. The quality of your website itself will influence the impression they gain; remember that they can't see your products or easily speak to your employees, so they are left with your website as an indicator of what sort of standards to expect from you.

This means that your website should look smart and professional, as well as reasonably up-to-date. Choose a web designer who makes a point of complying with web standards (a set of guidelines for making websites accessible and usable), and avoid flashing or scrolling text, animated GIFs or anything similarly gimmicky. Give the impression that you understand the online environment well, especially if you are running an ecommerce site. No one wants to put their credit card number into a website that looks like it was designed a decade ago.

Make sure that you check your whole website for spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes. Get someone to proofread it, even if you think your command of the English language is pretty good. People will assess your intelligence and workmanship on elements such as these.

Feature testimonials from real customers. Ideally, handwritten letters, scanned in and reproduced, are the best way of showing new visitors that you are trustworthy, but if you receive a lot of your best comments via email, you can just copy and paste the text onto your website. Choose your quotations carefully: don't appear to be scraping the barrel by using things like "I was satisfied with your service"!

The Right Impression

You need to make a good impression with your website, because your online visitors can't interact with you in the same way that they would with a bricks-and-mortar business. You need to give them all the reassurance they need that you are reliable, trustworthy, honest, and providing a quality service.

However, once you're in contact with them – once they've been charmed by your website and have made a phone call or come to visit your shop or office – you should immediately be completely upfront with them. Honesty is very attractive to people. Once you are on the phone to them, you can explain that you work from home, or that you are the sole member of staff. Hopefully, once you have them talking to you, they'll be impressed by your honesty, courtesy and knowledge.

By Iain Ford