When you personally visit a customer you can shake his or her hand, smile and chat before you even start talking about your products or services. You can even share personal stories! During this interaction, the person can perceive your warmth and genuine interest in providing the solution he/she seeks. Although online it could be a totally different story, it doesn't have to be. Here are three ways in which you can have your customer or potential customers feel comfortable with you, even though they can't touch you:
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Pictures, videos and audio files: Media needs to be carefully used not to overextend page download times and cause frustrations. Nevertheless, when used properly, a video with a short welcome message from you, sound bites from a happy employee or customer, pictures of the corporation's employees or products and audio files explaining a somewhat complex concept can make your visitor from the other side of the globe feel comfortable with you, your products and your company.
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Blogs: Is someone in your upper management the type of person that likes to share his or her thoughts on the industry or product related issues? How about enticing this person to start his or her own blog?
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Forums: These are great to get your customers talking to each other and many times offering support to one another regarding your product. It's like having a room open 24/7/365 with people coming in and out talking about your company, products or services. Of course, there should always be a host in the room to make sure visitors feel welcome when they visit and get their questions answered.
All it takes is creativity, strategy and the right technology to have your guests from any corner of the globe feel at home in your site and with your company!