If your customers aren’t comfortable doing business with you, then they will probably not buy from you again, regardless of how good your product is or how convenient their shopping experience was. The same goes for investors. If your organization operates in a somewhat shady manner or your security systems and servers have been hacked and your site or app hijacked in the past, potential investors and partners will think twice about signing a deal with you. So how do you make them comfortable, enough to gain their trust and continued support? Here’s 5 ways:

 

Be Transparent

Transparency isn’t something you can overlook nowadays as a nonprofit organization owner. Customers expect full disclosure when it comes to the brands they buy from. By granting access to relevant information, such as the materials used for your product, policies when it comes to returning or exchanging items, and security systems that you use. Customers have peace of mind when they’re navigating through a website that has a verification seal from a third-party security company. Highly trusted security brands include Norton, IBM Security, and Dell SecureWorks. Have the verification seal prominently positioned on your organization’s website or mobile application in a visible area. Placing these seals next to your call-to-action donation button can clearly give the message to the customer that the organization is secured when accepting donations.

 

Enable Order Tracking

Customers like the option of being able to track their orders in route. Nowadays, customers want to get their orders as fast as possible. Nobody wants to wait for more than two days to get replacement parts for their smartphone or their hair products. With an order tracking tool on your website or mobile app, customers can see where their orders are currently at. And while the location isn’t always accurate, it helps let customers know when or if there are any delays or early deliveries. Most major shipping companies like USPS and DHL can also offer shipping numbers for order tracking through their own network.

 

Show Them Behind the Scenes

Give your customers a behind-the-scenes tour of how your company manufactures the products that you sell, what technologies you use in the back-end, and the policies you use to ensure data security and product quality. Traditional brick-and-mortar organizations and mom and pop shops can especially take advantage of this tip since they have the physical infrastructure in place. eCommerce portals, on the other hand, can still show clients what goes on behind the curtains by showing them the data centers you use and the remote offices that you rent out.

 

Encrypt Your Data

In a nutshell, data encryption converts information into another format so that only authorized users who have the key or code to decrypt the data can see it. This is often used for user accounts that contain email and password information. Presently, encryption is one of the most widely used data security techniques utilized by websites and software applications. Encryption solutions are primarily used to secure digital information and maintain user confidentiality. It is stored on databases and transmitted using the web. This can be ideal for a nonprofit organizations, because online donations are commonly done through the organization’s website and this will allow customers to be more likely to give their credit card information without second guessing the protection of information.

 

Keep Your OS Up to Date

Manufacturers of security systems release upgrades of their products regularly. Make sure the operating systems that are installed on your office computers are up to date. Sign up for automatic notifications concerning new security patches. Hackers and malware programs are constantly changing, and so should the security systems that protect your computers from malicious software. Aside from an updated operating system, software that blocks spam content and detects malicious programs should also be installed in every office computer being used. Last but not least, educate your employees on how to properly handle user information.

 

Final Thoughts

Giving your customers peace of mind that their personal information is secure encourages them to do more business with you. Use the five tips above to reinforce your organization with robust security safeguards that can deter any potential intruders and prevent any cataclysmic breaches in the future.