Trust is an important currency with your customers. One that can be lost quicker than any other known currency. Not even cryptocurrency or NFTs can compare to loss of trust.
If you say free shipping on your homepage but charge a "fulfillment fee of $20" in checkout, you've spent that trust.
If you say no hassle returns but require them to overnight a package at their expense within 24 hours, you've spent that trust.
When customers lose trust in your store, most will just quietly defect and go to a competitor. Some will complain. Some will complain loudly and tell everyone they know.
That means for every complaining customer, you probably have 10x more customers who aren't satisfied but decided with wasn't worth the effort to tell you. That's why you need to take legitimate complaints seriously. You're only hearing about 1/10th of the problem.
Not all complaints are legitimate or fixable. Some people are just upset and taking it out on you. But don't dismiss them until you know for sure.
If you can fix the actual issues that caused the complaint, that will help improve the trust of the customers who kept quiet.
Do it again and again and again... and you'll optimizing your business for retaining loyal customers.
Measure the different levels of your own customer trust and loyalty with Repeat Customer Insights. It uses various models to segment and grade your customers based on their behavior.
Eric Davis
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