Tackling Trust Issues - a tactical guide
The oft cited reason for customers to drop off at the payment step (especially for financial services)
If you are building a FinTech business in India - then you can expect to hear the words “trust issue” 100s of time each day - coming from prospects OR coming from your Sales team.
I won’t delve into WHY we have trust issues with purchasing products & services online (especially financial ones) in India. But, let’s discuss how you can engineer around this.
Note: Trust compounds slowly & organically over time (over a decade). But, VC backed FinTech cos don’t have the luxury of a decade - you have to shortcut the brand building effort. And, if you don’t have 100s of millions of dollars (e.g. CRED) - what small effort high reward steps can you take?
Below is a summary of HOW you can shortcut “trust issues”
I won’t repeat the same material in the text below - but instead I’ll focus on 5 principles for you to follow:
Handling “Trust Issues” is EVERYONE’s job
You might need to rope in the CEO / your investors to get the WhatsApp green tick verification - DO it
You might need to pay some extra incentives to Cust Support / Sales to “nudge” customers for testimonials on Google Reviews - DO it
As CEO, create a monthly cycle where you get Sales, Marketing & Product into one room to discuss what NEW reasons are emerging for trust issues & whether there are any learnings.
Tell (your Sales Reps), don’t (just) show (it to your customer)
Conventical wisdom says to display testimonials & other types of social proof / proof by authority on your website & social media.
Here’s the harsh truth: The average Indian customer won’t even bother looking at this while downloading your app / filing a lead form.
Its quite likely that at the payment step - you have an assisted Sale (i.e. Inside Sales Rep speaking with the customer)
Now, it is your Sales Rep’s job to hand “Trust Issues”:
Their script / objection handling training material should include pointing the customer to the website testimonials section or to Google Reviews
Or, even better - give your Rep the ability to trigger a personalized set of client testimonials (e.g. from same location or same demographic etc)
Being street smart about “trust issues” works with ALL customer types
From a 25 year old Mumbai sweetshop owner to a 50 year old Kanpur garment shop owner - the SAME street smartness works when a customer has a trust issue with your business.
This street smartness need to come out in your Objection Handling Script given to Sales Reps
Have a WhatsApp green tick? “Sir, WhatsApp jaise badi company ke humare company ko verify kiya hai - agar unka trust humare saath hai - toh aapka kyun nahi? Aap har din WhatsApp use karte ho right?
Understanding the reasons behind customer “trust issues” helps with performance marketing
Some of the best performance marketing ads you can run take the biggest customer concerns head on via the creative / video
You need to invest some user research bandwidth here to talk to both existing customers & churned prospects
The monthly review suggested in (1) (C) can give you a starting point
Door to door marketing works wonders (when focused on narrow zones & even on low budgets)
It is likely your FinTech business is focused on a few cities or a few states
Deploying field executives (FEs) in key Pin Codes is a HUGE trust builder (and, at ~ ₹17.5K per head per month - this isn’t as expensive as print ads). FEs need the following:
Company T-Shirt
ID card with company lanyard
Pamphlets to distribute
Booklet to carry
We’ll cover running FE teams in WAY more detail in a future post.
FAQs section
{This is a placeholder which I will update based on questions}
Closing thoughts
Trust issues will continue to exist regardless of how big your FinTech co becomes. I routinely hear HDFC Loan officers under our office complain “bhai voh ₹1L vala customer churn hua - trust issues the - unko laga main fraud hoon”
Yes friends, to an HDFC loan officer…
Hopefully, the 5 principles & the sketch above will give some ideas on HOW to tackle “trust issues” which your business is facing! Happy building!
This is the first tactical guide I’ve written - I look forward to your thoughts, comments & feedback. Please do share this on Social Media if you found it useful.