The Trust Factor. Garrett M.D. Pierson

here’s the interesting thing. I would let them buy an ice cream from the van on the right without hesitation. Why? Because it looks trustworthy.

      That’s TRUST Factor #1 - Perception is Reality.

      You see, our lives are based on our own individual view of reality - how we see the world. It doesn’t matter if our perception is based on fact or fiction; we still base our decisions on it.

      For example, my wife hates roller coasters and thrill rides where she feels like she is not in control. Why? Because when she was about four years old, her mother took her on the Matterhorn at Disneyland and proceeded to scream bloody murder the whole time as if they were both going to die. She permanently traumatized my wife and changed her perception of what it was like to be out of control. This perception was further ingrained every time her mother would retell the story of their ‘near-death’ roller coaster experience and how she should have never taken her helpless four-year old on that ride. (Just for the record, I love my mother-in-law. She just made a mistake that had unintended consequences.)

      Contrast that with my children’s experience. I love roller coasters. So when my kids were young I would tell them that as soon as they turned five, I was going to take them on the roller coaster with me. They were so excited! I knew that the first roller coaster ride would make all the difference, so I made sure to play it up all the way onto the ride, during the ride, and especially as soon as the ride was over.

      I remember looking at my kids as they got off their first roller coaster; their little bodies shaking from the adrenaline, still in shock. Intentionally, I would totally play it up, saying things like “Wasn’t that awesome? Remember how exciting it was when we suddenly dropped down and then went through the loopty-loops? Let’s do it again!” I intentionally fed them with positive reinforcement because I wanted them to love roller coasters as much as I do. And it worked! My kids love roller coasters and they beg me every year to take them to the amusement park.

      Isn’t it interesting how we can influence people’s decisions and their perception of reality? The truth is that our perceptions are constantly changing. Every time we experience something new like read a book, watch the news, or talk to a friend, spouse, or co-worker, we affect our reality.

      Here are some other real-world examples of how perception affects our reality...

      - Chainsaws at spook alleys. We all know that there isn’t a chain on the chainsaw, but it’s still as scary as hell.

      - Superstitions. Have you ever had a friend who never washes his lucky basketball socks? Do you know someone that goes through a specific ritual every time his team plays away games?

      - Groups at school. Have you ever dreaded being asked to get into groups because you thought that nobody would want to be in your group?

      - Diamond rings. Why is it that somehow our love for our wives is directly proportionate to the size of diamond ring we buy her?

      - Bad neighborhoods. Do you avoid driving in particular neighborhoods because you heard rumors or stories about it, or because it appeared to be run down?

      The point here is that our entire lives are built around perception. Here’s another example that directly relates to your business.

      - Buying online. Have you ever decided to not buy a product from a particular website because the site didn’t look credible, and then bought it from another website that did? Just like the ice cream vans, people are much more likely to buy from a website that looks professional, credible, and trustworthy over one that doesn’t appear to have these characteristics.

      Did you notice how I used the word “looks” both times I mentioned the ice cream truck example?

      The interesting thing about perception and trust is that something only has to “look” or appear trustworthy in order for people to initially trust it.

      Fortunately, in the case of most businesses, those that look credible usually are, but not always.

      There are cases where a website can look like a million bucks and yet have an ineffective or low grade product, or even worse, be a scam. If you want to see an example of this, just type in the term HYIP in Google and see what comes up. HYIP stands for High Yield Investment Program and every single one of them are ponzi schemes (warning: if you do a search for HYIP in Google, please don’t get sucked in. They can be very compelling.) Unfortunately, the people behind them are getting so good at making their sites look credible and professional that they can deceive even the most conservative, careful investors.

      To prove my point, even I got tempted to sign up for an HYIP when I was doing research on this chapter. I clicked on a HYIP ad in Google that showed a 45% ROI per year, (which is on the low end for what many of them claim) and as soon as the website loaded, it had Yahoo Finance logos, it talked about the FDIC, the FOREX market, truth in savings disclosures - the works. My spider senses were tingling, telling me to run, but it looked so compelling that I had a hard time leaving the site. I think it’s human nature to try to get something for nothing. Unfortunately it rarely ever works out to our benefit. This is just another example of how our perception can affect our reality.

      Okay, I’ve got one more really good example before I drive the point home.

      Do you drink bottled water? Statistically, the average American drinks 167 single-use plastic water bottles each year, 86% of which go directly into landfills. So why do we drink bottled water? Because it’s healthier than tap water, right? That’s what most people would tell you.

      The reality is that this generally isn’t the case - especially in the US. In fact, several studies have been done and in many cases tap water is just as safe as bottled water. Ironically, several of the larger bottled water brands are nothing more than treated municipal tap water. Even in New York City, the water is just as clean as bottled water.

      Case in point, back in 2005, 20/20 did a segment on bottled water. They took a sample from a drinking fountain in the middle of New York and compared it to five major bottled water brands, namely Evian (from France), Aquafina, Iceland Spring (from Iceland), Poland Spring, and American Fare (Kmart’s low cost brand), and when the results came back, there was no difference in water quality between the bottled water and water from the drinking fountain.

      Okay, so if bottled water isn’t any healthier, maybe we drink it because it tastes better? We’ll 20/20 thought the same thing, so they took it even one step further and did a blind taste test. Surprisingly, the cheap American Fare Kmart brand won, followed by Aquafina (aka ‘filtered’ tap water), followed by a tie between Iceland Spring and the actual NYC tap water. Fourth place went to Poland Spring, and the expensive, French Evian came in dead last with half of the taste testers saying that it tasted bad.

      My point in all of these examples is simply this; we all make decisions based on how we perceive reality. We go to specific restaurants over others because we perceive one to be better than the other. We buy organic fruit because we perceive it to be better than non-organic fruit. We buy bottled water because we perceive it to be healthier and better tasting than regular tap water.

      The reality is that reality doesn’t really matter.

      That is your ace in the hole as a website owner. The Internet gives you the ability to be whoever you want to be. I mean, who would have thought that two guys in a condo basement would end up directly competing against multi-million dollar brick and mortar stores that had been established for years, but we did, and the great thing about the Internet is that you can too.

      The key is to make your website look credible, professional, and trustworthy. The best way to do that is by benchmarking.

      Benchmarking is one of the few concepts I learned in university that I have actually been able to apply to the real business world. If you’ve never heard of the term before, here’s the stuffy BusinessDictionary.com definition: (yawn)...

      “Benchmarking