The reputation of multi-level marketing has often been tarnished with many people claiming that they have been taken for a ride by fraudulent companies and lost a lot of money in the process.
Such claims are not just being made up, but many of them are actually telling the truth.
However the problem with such claims is that many prospective consumers who come to know of such scams decide to stay away from MLM companies, even if they are genuine and do not carry out any fraudulent practices.
This makes it very important for an MLM company to focus on building the trust of the consumer.
There are many ways to go about it. Following are a few.
It helps a great deal if websites actually disclose where they are physically located. If the consumer has the necessary details about the mailing address, the telephone and fax numbers he can actually verify if any such company exists.
More often than not he wouldn’t take the trouble to do so. But still just mentioning your contact details instills confidence in your prospective consumer.
If someone wants to, he can call up your number and actually verify if any such company exists physically. Being just on a website is like being virtual, and you never become real that way.
Try and be as transparent as possible. Sites that are trusted have a transparency policy where they clearly demarcate between advertisement and news, and disclose any business relationships they might have with the sponsored links to other sites.
Even the sites policies regarding sponsorship should be made clear. What you basically need is a site that would help in open communication and where the visitor would know where they would be going to for clicking a particular link.
Clearly mention the privacy policy of your website. This would help the visitor understand what you plan to do with the information that you gather from the consumer.
It is good to have legal documents uploaded. But a more lucidly worded privacy policy would help the consumer understand what you are talking about and allow him or her to take a decision.
Be honest to your visitors and don’t just flood them with offers that sound too good to be true.
The higher the claims the more is the risk of consumers turning away. Being realistic helps your consumer to trust you more.
Get your site approved by independent agencies and previous consumers. When an independent entity guarantees your trustworthiness and credibility the prospective customer can be more confident of going ahead and making the purchase.
There are several companies now who actually scrutinize the business policies of a company and if they find such sites to be reliable they provide them with their seal of approval.
If previous customers vouch for your product and service, then also the customer can trust your website much more.
Getting the consumers to trust you is imperative to your business. Since doing business over the internet is still a pretty new concept, consumers need to be convinced that extra bit.
And if you really want to succeed trading on the internet you have to try and instill that trust.
