How to earn the trust of the users online ?

Type hostels in London on Google and you will get 305,000 offers to choose from. Which one to trust, which is trustworthy then? According to Hugo Burge (2008), vice-chairman of Cheapflights.co.uk one way to earn trust is through honesty and transparency. Generally speaking trust was defined by Bolton, Loebbecke and Ockenfels (2008) as the individual’s willingness to commit to do something where the cooperation of other people is crucial to the outcome. Trustworthiness is considered to involve the individual’s capacity to deliver to others, as they expect, and in the process, creates value for the group as a whole. The level of trust in an online environment can be affected by customer’s knowledge, perception, experience, attitude, reasoning and thinking. Different companies have put in place some level of security to protect the users of their websites, especially banks and companies that require customers to reveal their account details when transacting business online. This is to help reduce the level of uncertainty and encourage trust(Angriawan and Thakur 2008).
A general definition of trust is that of a ‘relationship between one or more persons, which has elements of openness and honesty, and a willingness to accept other[s] based on the opinion that the other party is both capable, and dependable. From a philosophical perspective, trust has to do with ethically and morally justifiable behavior (Buttner and Goritz 2008), but in economic terms trust is a rational calculation of costs and benefits (Buttner and Goritz 2008). In individual terms, trust is conceived as the extent to which an individual is willing to rely upon and make oneself vulnerable to another (Rotter, 1967; Frost et al.,1978 cited in Buttner and Goritz 2008). In an organizational context, trust is often a collective judgment that another group will not act opportunistically, is honest in negotiations, and makes a good faith effort to behave in accordance with commitments (Buttner and Goritz 2008). Despite the fact that trust and trustworthiness are the subjects of various disciplines most scholars agree that trust has three major constituents: (a) uncertainty about the outcomes of an interaction, (b) personal harm as a possible outcome of the interaction and (c) lack of influence on the outcomes (Petermann,1996 cited in Strander and Ramaswami 2008).
The results of a laboratory study conducted by Bolton, Loebbecke and Ockenfels (2008) on the impact of competition on trust and trustworthiness in online traditind shows that the key to reputation information creating trust, trustworthiness, and trade efficiency in the marketplace is buyer discrimination on the basis of the information. When given the choice of two sellers, it takes a large price break to convince the average buyer to do business with the seller of lesser reputation.
Online customers don’t have the opportunity of inspection the product bought or meeting the other party involved (Chanda and Debjani 2007) which mean that this kind of transaction will require a level of trust from both parties.Studies show that generating trustworthiness could be financially beneficial such as buyers reward sellers they can trust with price premiums (7-10%).
With a view to the concept of trust it can be said that there three levels of trust, the level of trust must rise to reach a level of optimal trust where the increased risk is manageable, acceptable and practical. At its basic level it is assumed that the trustor acts in a trusting manner in a situation of risk when there is little at stake (e.g. much money, very personal information) and there are recognized systems of reward and punishment. At the intermediate level, a trustor has some experience and familiarity with the web site, and so is in a situation of risk in which knowledge can be used to predicate behaviour and thus assign trust. Last in the development, which is the deepest level of trust the trustor expects that his or her interests will be respected by the web site and that he/she does not have to calculate the level of risk anymore (Winch and Joyce 2006).
The level of importance for factors affecting online sellers choice (Strander and
Ramaswami 2008)

The level of importance for trust factors affecting online seller choice (Strander and
Ramaswami 2008)

An interesting example of website from the world of football is that of Manchester United. How is it demonstrating its trustworthiness to online visitors:
1. Website loads quickly
2. Professional design and easy navigation.
3. Home page has good layout with browsing language choice.
4. The website’s privacy policies as well as terms of use are clearly marked.
5. Contact information is provided.
6. Online shopping for team memorabilia and collectibles is secured by VeriSign (a California-based company that manages two of the world’s 13 Internet root servers, a.root-servers.net and j.root-servers.net, considered national IT assets by the US federal government).
7. A consistency of ManuUnited corporate identity elements (colour, logo).
8. The presence of the guarantee text on the home page ‘the Official website for the world’s most popular team’.
9. Trustworthy partner logos and links are included in the website. Examples (Nike, AIG, Premier League).
10. Only the website administrators can upload information so the danger of a third party intervention is reduced.
11. Initial navigation page appears once for language selection, and then the website saves the users’ preferences automatically.

http://www.manutd.com/ is a trustworthy website. The football team website is not a high risk involvement product and it has a long tradition that makes a good reputation. Our recommendations are that they have to maintain this level and observe the different factors (e.g. forged Manchester United websites) that can affect visitors’ perceptions of trustworthiness and for a better understanding of the user’s approach to the trustworthiness of the website they should develop regular online surveys.




REFERENCES

Angriawan, A. and Thakur, R. (2008) 'A Parsimonious Model of the Antecedent and Consequences of Online Trust: An Uncertainty Perception.' Journal of Internet Commerce [online] 7, (1) 74-94. Available from < vid="1&hid=" sid="6bf1beee-39cf-41aa-80a1-4eb4941be11c%40sessionmgr104&bdata=" db="bth&AN="> [25th March 2009]

Bolton, G., Loebbecke, C., Ockenfels, A. (2008) ‘Does competition promote trust and trustworthiness in online trading? An experimental study.’ Journal of Management Information Systems [online] 25, (2) 145-169. Available from < vid="1&hid=" sid="6f6b25df-f484-469c-bb8c-6cba106acc76%40sessionmgr107&bdata=" db="bth&AN="> [24th March 2009]
Buttner, O., Goritz, A. (2008) ‘Perceived trustworthiness of online shops.’ Journal of Consumer Behaviour [online] 7, (1) 35-50. Available from < vid="1&hid=" sid="393cf486-e91b-4bd8-b9e9-9f630d803ec7%40sessionmgr103&bdata=" db="bth&AN="> [24th March 2009]

Chanda, C. and Debjani, C. (2008) 'Fuzzy Rule Base for Consumer Trusthworthiness in Internet Marketing: An Interactive Fuzzy Rule Classification Approach.' Intelligent Data Analysis [online] 11, (4) 339-353. Available from < vid="1&hid=" sid="09bf3d0b-8702-49a1-b283-70e74fbf7378%40sessionmgr107&bdata=" db="bth&AN="> [25th March 2009]

Hugo Burge (2008) ‘Build web loyalty by giving honest facts.’ Travel Trade Gazette

Strander, T., Ramaswami, S. (2008) ‘The Value of Seller Trustworthiness in C2C online markets.’ Communications of the ACM [online] 45, (12) 45-52. Available from [25th March 2009]

Winch, G. and Joyce, P. (2006) 'Exploring the Dynamics of Building, and Losing, Consumer Trust in B2c Ebusiness.' International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management [online] 34, (7) 541-555. Available from < vid="5&hid=" sid="81518cce-1bcf-4ec4-8bab-efbf5932144e%40sessionmgr2&bdata=" db="bth&AN="> [25th March 2009]

The difficult topic of trust

Even if it has to do with brands in the real world the video from D&AD features some high-profile people from the communication industry. The theme of their presentation is not trust or trustworthiness but the subject seems to be of a high importance since the speakers mention it frequently. In this respect look at the Aviva example, a good though for their campaign (you can find it in the 4th presentation). One thing to remember is that brands irrespective their medium (online or not) have to make the most of the present crisis.

Extending brand experience

has become possible with the use of both online communities and games. Research by Gartner, one of the leading IT research company states that ‘more than 60% of Fortune 1000 companies with a website will connect to or host a form of online community by 2010’.

Online communities engage the customers and develop their brand experience by building a relationship between the brand and the customers. Different companies have developed online communities as an interactive marketing tool that allows them to access and advertise to a large group of like-minded individuals in a social setting, encouraging communication between users and brand. Most international brand such as L’Oreal, Nokia, Nike, Amazon etc build online communities to give their customers from different countries the chance to interact, share their opinion on their product and also buy the product online. This is done mostly by the participant of the online community registering for free.

Online communities have a social and commercial purpose. They allow for marketing feedback and new idea conduits; check on quality and social responsibility. In such communities, customers own companies, rather than companies owning customers (Farquhar and Rowley 2006). The importance of online communities is increasing day by day because of consumers increasingly use of online tools to share ideas and contact fellow consumers (Casalo, Flavian and Guinaliu 2008). The success of any online community depends on the willingness of consumers to participate in the community. Community managers are assigned to these online communities to ensure that it is sustained grows and is a safe place for customers to interact with other customers and with the company.

A good example of online community is Amazon. People can buy books on their website, post their reviews and also discuss the book with other book lovers. Though recently, online communities now includes brick and mortar communities and online forum for example, second life, the information members exchange in this virtual community allows people to learn about each other as they learn more about the community’s focal topics. Interaction among the members is the engine that fosters the growth of such communities.
Research has shown that consumer motivation for joining these communities include satisfaction of needs like shared interest, relationship building and transaction

Why is it important to marketers?
Each of the decisions a buyer faces can be influenced by interactions with communities that are focused on the same product or service type in question. For consumers who have already made a purchasing decision, these communities also provide help with the ongoing use of that product. Relationships between consumers have been shown to influence brand choice and the choice of services, and research has long highlighted the importance of studying the relationships among communicators in this communities.

While consumer-to-consumer communication is not new, the organized support and public nature of the internet provides marketers with unprecedented access to information on these communications. Participation in these communities allows researchers’ early identification of trends and also access to word-of-mouth (WOM) communication – a form of communications that should not be undervalued (Pitta and Fowler 2005) .
In each of these communities, members share information of value to themselves and others, this sharing can be valuable to marketers.

Benefits of these communities are the amount of information a company can gain about its customer base which they can use for short and long customer relationship. The data collected can be used for ‘product development, customer’s feedback, loyalty management, customer segmentation, campaign targeting and individual or group customer satisfaction management’. All these information can be use in marketing and the satisfaction of customers.

Marketers can target consumers in these communities by becoming members of these communities, by participating and interacting with other members a group or mini-society could be formed for members interested in the product or service. Trust must be built over time, and can be lost quickly if the community sees the interaction as being solely self-serving so it has to be done continually and gradually without aggression.
Consumers can also be targeted through sponsorship and the use of subtle advertisement within the online communities (Pitta and Fowler 2005). To be effective, the marketer should refrain from too active and overt a role in an online community.

On the gaming side, companies have not only been utilizing existing games as advertising platform, but rather building their own games. For instance, America’s Army , released on July 4, 2002 which proved to be an effective marketing tool with 9 million players and Barack Obama’s campaign when dynamic ads were placed in the online versions of some 18 games running on Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 video-game consoles.

Subway restaurant is also a positive example because research shows that 20% more gamers visited the place in the month afterward than gamers who did not. The ads also created a 19% lift in gamers who rated the chain as excellent or very good, a 12% jump in purchase consideration, and a 9% increase in players who would recommend http://www.promomagazine.com/entertainmentmarketing/0201-console-games-offer-brands’)

References:

Casalo, L. V., Flavian, C. and Guinaliu, M. (2008) 'Fundaments of Trust Management in Development of Virtual Communities.' Management Research News 31, (5) 324-338


Farquhar, J. and Rowley, J. (2006) 'Relationships and Online Consumer Communities.' Business process management journal 12, (2) 162-177


Pitta, D. A. and Fowler, D. (2005) 'Online Consumer Communities and Their Value to New Product Developers.' Journal of Product & Brand Management 14, (5) 283-291

Will it be or not ?

If you think that social networking is just for computers, you are wrong. It seems that internet on the mobile phone is getting to a stage where the pc would be forgotten, from PDAs to blackberry’s and even new designs of phone made especially for frequent internet use by companies such as Nokia, Apple, Samsung or Sony Ericsson. It has got to a point where people can use their phones to check and receive their e-mails, check their account balances, transfer funds and know where the person next to him is working without even being introduced. For instance, Aka-aki, a German company developed an Internet application for the mobile phone suitable for social networking.
Moreover, I have the feeling that the time when I don’t have to worry anymore if I arranged or not the books on the shelf in the ascendant order of the publishing date or the shirts in the alphabetical order according to the name on the label is very close. The apps that are currently available and that can be used on an iPhone are here to soothe my worries. So I just discovered that if I need to impress my friends with my knowledge about birds there is iBird or if I don’t know what to say next I can always use the jokes from the late-night talk shows through iPhunny. Despite benefits such as no fixed location, privacy, security and personalization for the time being there are certain setbacks related to costs and the implementation of Internet technology on a mobile phone. A survey conducted by the Nielsen Company in five Western European markets and the United States showed that 71 percent of consumers expect to use data services like mobile internet during the next two years, though they remain concerned about the cost, speed and quality of service in terms of display. By 2012, “people will be browsing the Web more on their phones than on PCs or laptops,” said Greg Osberg, Buzzwire’s chief executive . Even if the number of people who surf the Internet on phones has doubled since 2006, according to Nielsen Mobile, to 40 million only 16% of people with cellphones use them to go online, and those that do visit an average of six sites a month, versus 100 on their computers . The trend of PC Internet usage is replicated also as John Barton, UK sales and marketing director at LG Mobile observes: ’One of the major areas of growth besides e-mail is the use of social networking sites. More and more consumers want to stay in touch with their online communities while on the move’. Despite the favorable odds for the Internet on mobile phones this does not mean that someone will use a one and only device to access it to the prejudice of another. The best example comes from the mass-media world. After the emergence of TV people still listen to the radio or buy newspapers. All those information channels still exist with a different level of use but in a complementary relation.

PCs and the iDTV threat

There is a voice that says iDTV is the next big thing. That it would in fact replace PCs in the future in accessing the internet. This proposition could be evaluated on four main dimensions; Personalization, convenience, security and affordability.

Since the highest percentage of current web use is for individual activities such as e-mail accessing the internet through digital TV could not fulfill the user’s need for privacy and individuality, especially considering the fact that the TV is a group device. However it will provide good opportunity for group web interactions such as shopping, gaming, multimedia services, etc. This anticipated development could play a role in bringing family time back. It could also provide a dimension of extra convenience, but again that will only be useful with group activities. If a family for instance are watching a travel program and the destination on the show caught their interest, they can find more travel information and possible packages to that destination without having to leave their comfortable couch.

As with accessing the internet through the conventional PC, there is always going to be the concerns about security especially with commercial transactions. Web developers for both mediums work continuously on increasing security levels. The ability of a user’s iDTV provider to retain credit card information for future transactions is no different than that of any other online retailer accessible through a PC. The security glitches are present on both. It will be up to the user to choose their favourable medium to perform their transactions.

Based on The Office for National Statistics (July 2000) the Internet adoption in underprivileged neighborhoods and excluded social groups is considerably lower than the national average, with only 4.3% in the lower 30% of income earners having access to the internet.
With more people being able to afford a TV set, and with the swap to digital TV, which will merely require households with “old” analogue TVs to purchase a cheap top-set box which converts the digital signal received into analogue, digital TV promises to become a more affordable alternative for accessing the internet compared to the PC. This would help bridge the digital divide and extend the use of the internet to more households even in marginalized areas with digitally underprivileged households.

While iDTV promises to enhance people’s range of media choices that match every possible lifestyle and preference, it will not reach a point where it will replace other media, but rather complement the modern man’s extensive communications platform.

Get off Facebook and get a life

Not long time ago a friend of mine decided to do this. He said goodbye to his FB friends in order to enjoy more free time. Finally, he escaped ! and respectable voices from the scientific world back his decision. For instance, Dr. Aric Sigman, psychologist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine argues in a recent study that a high level of devotion to virtual networks can have negative consequences on the individual's mental performance. In her study Baroness Susan Greenfield, a neuroscientist at the University of Oxford, says that social networking sites could be driving the human brain into an infant-like state because of the instant feedback and impersonal communication. Thus, skills like recognizing and understanding body language or sympathizing have little chances for development. On the other hand, the desire of belonging and membership proved by users joining groups with which they have sometimes little in common or adding the friends of friends is an example of an increasing social feeling of loneliness. Contrary to one may think a big list of friends mean less time to actually pay attention to what they are doing. I would argue that online virtual networks, namely FB will soon reach a saturation stage when its users will express the need for a break.