Building Customer Trust

🌳 Design Patterns For Building Trust. With practical guidelines for designers on how to make products — AI and non-AI — more trustworthy, reliable and honest. In the noisy and polluted world today, trust doesn’t come for free. It doesn’t emerge by default. It must be earned and meticulously preserved — by being reliable, accountable and treating customers with respect. This holds true for people but it also for software. According to Anyi Sun, there are 5 psychological foundations of user trust: 1. Reliability 🔰 The degree to which the product consistently behaves as expected. It's a sense that that the product is dependable — based on a track record of past actions. Reliability comes from promising what you do, and doing what you promised. 2. Technical competence ⚡ Perceived intelligence, sophistication and capability of the product. It's user's belief that the product can successfully perform what they are being trusted to do. It's about trusting product's capability. 3. Understandability 🧠 The extent to which users feel they can understand how the system works or why it made a certain decision. The product must be able to articulate how a decision came along, with references to fragments that underpin a decision. 4. Faith and Care 🌱 Emotional, almost "blind trust" in the product, especially when users don't understand the underlying logic. It's a belief that the trusted party actually cares about the positive outcome for you, and intends to do good. 5. Personal attachment 🌳 A sense of rapport, connection or emotional engagement with the product. Typically it emerges when a user feels that they get meaningful value from the product, and from interactions with people supporting it. Personally, I would also add the value of repeated positive experiences that build confidence in the quality of the product, and hence its reliability. --- With AI products, hitting all these psychological foundations is extremely hard. Surely some people trust AI almost instinctively, others are more critical. But people's attitude often changes dramatically once they realized that they've made severe mistakes because of AI. Recovering from it is very hard. We can help with some design patterns: 1. Avoid "Ask me anything" → push for scoping and constraints 2. Slow down users in prompting → request specific details 3. Present multiple viewpoints, explain that experts disagree 4. Allow users to manage “memory”, profiles personalization 5. Highlight what is AI-generated and what isn't (AI disclosure) 6. Allow users to override AI-generated suggestions manually 7. Allow users to tweak AI output and refine it for their needs 8. Adapt AI's tone depending on the severity of user's task Trust is why people stay or leave. It builds long-term loyalty and helps users overcome hesitation. But it must be designed and retained — across all psychological foundations and with thoughtful UX work. I think designers will be quite busy for years to come. #ux #design

Over the last year, nearly every FMCG executive I’ve spoken to whether sitting in Chicago, Paris, or São Paulo has echoed the same challenge: “We need to get closer to the consumer, faster.” Global brand, local nuance the future of FMCG growth depends on how well your leadership understands the street, not just the spreadsheet. It’s no longer enough to run a global playbook and hope for local resonance. Why? Because the center of gravity in FMCG has shifted. 84% of FMCG companies are now increasing local decision autonomy in key growth markets. (Bain FMCG Operating Model Report, 2023) → That means your CMO can’t be the only one with a finger on the pulse. → Your regional GM can’t just execute HQ strategy. → And your global leaders can’t lead with assumptions they need cultural fluency and operational humility. In other words: local-for-local is not just a supply chain shift. It’s a leadership shift. The most successful candidates weren’t those who had rotated through five global hubs. They were the ones who could… → Read the cultural nuances of consumer behavior in that specific region → Navigate the regulatory quirks that could derail a product launch → Influence global teams while building trust with local retailers → Speak the language literally and commercially They understood the street not just the spreadsheet. And they had the rare ability to connect what’s happening on the ground with what needs to be shifted at the center. These are the leaders FMCG needs now. → Strategists who don’t just adapt to the market, they anticipate it. → Operators who don’t wait for HQ they build and test in-market. → Connectors who know when to push back and when to align. Because in today’s world, speed and relevance win. And that doesn’t come from waiting for global sign-off. It comes from empowering the right local leaders. Here’s where I see many companies trip up: They treat “local” as junior. As operational. As reactive. The truth? Your next competitive edge may be a GM in Manila, a Marketing Director in Lagos, or a Commercial Lead in Warsaw who’s trusted enough to build strategy from the ground up. That’s what global FMCG companies are starting to understand and what we’re helping them solve for in every executive search we run. Not just global leaders who can work across regions…but local leaders who can lead across functions, cultures, and expectations while driving growth with urgency and empathy. This is the new face of global FMCG. Not centralized, but coordinated. Not rigid, but responsive. Not top-down, but built from the middle out. #ExecutiveSearch #FMCGLeadership #GlobalGrowth #ConsumerGoods #TalentStrategy #LeadershipHiring

Only 10% of our revenue is online. The other 90%? Physical stores where customers can touch products and trust us. The reason will surprise most D2C founders. Every D2C founder obsesses over storytelling. Brand narratives. Instagram aesthetics. They're solving the wrong problem for India. We have 200k+ reviews. Great engagement. Beautiful content. But here's what actually drives sales: 170 experience centers where people can touch our mattresses. In India, trust matters more. A customer in Indore doesn't care about your founder's journey. She cares if her neighbor bought from you. If she can touch the product. If there's a physical address to complain. We learned this the hard way. Initially, we pushed digital-first. Perfect websites. Compelling stories. Conversion rates stayed flat in Tier-2/3 cities. Then we opened physical stores. Same cities, 5x conversion overnight. The formula for India:  → Regional language sales staff over English-trained executives → Physical store addresses over perfect brand stories → Multi-channel presence over digital-only strategy → Festival-driven sales planning over year-round campaigns → Experience centers for product trials over online-only catalogs Our Surat store outsells many metro locations. Why? The sales associate speaks Gujarati, knows the customer's families, and lets them bring their entire joint family for demos. That's trust mechanics. Not VC-friendly. But it works. Today only 10% revenue is online. But those online sales happen because customers tried products offline first, or their cousin did. Stop building for the India in pitch decks. Build for the India that exists. India doesn't need better storytelling. It needs reasons to trust you. What assumption about your market proved completely wrong?

Not ads. Not influencers. This is what builds a D2C brand. 8 years ago, when Varun Alagh and I launched Mamaearth, we weren’t the biggest brand. We didn’t have endless budgets or massive influencer deals. What we had was intent. We replied to every DM ourselves. Took feedback personally. And obsessed over what one customer was trying to say, not how many followed us. I myself talked to over 3,000 mothers to understand what they want in a baby product. That’s what most people miss about D2C: The consumer doesn’t just buy your product. They buy your intent. 🔹They notice when you make changes based on their reviews. 🔹They remember how fast you responded when they had a concern. 🔹They talk about your brand when you listen to them like a person, not a number. The edge in D2C isn’t speed or scale. While those are important too, what tops the list is how real your relationship with your consumer feels. If you're in the D2C space, don’t chase virality before you’ve built trust. And don’t confuse transactions with loyalty. What’s one lesson that’s shaped how you show up for your consumer? #Entrepreneurship #MondayMotivation #LeadershipLesson #D2C

6 out of 10 brands I audit struggle to convert visitors. At best, achieving a 1% conversion rate. The culprit? - templated product pages - benefits not highlighted - not-so-intuitive design Making the shopping experience forgetful. A memorable experience is key to converting visitors.  Especially if you drive traffic to product pages. Because when someone is viewing your product, they are likely seeing other brands too. In this example, using Hawaii Coffee's PDP, I've made changes that make the shopping experience memorable and increase the conversion rate. Below are the 8 changes I recommend - 1. Adding a short product description. This should show the brand's personality and tell the shopper something valuable about the product. 2. Using an image that catches attention. This is key. Use an image that represents your brand's personality. 3. Highlighting key selling points of the product. These should be placed before the add-on cart and should be easy to read. 4. Making sure the options are clear. If you're selling different variants or sizes, make sure the user knows which one's best for them. Make this super clear. 5. Highlighting why someone should subscribe and not just purchase one time. Basically, your subscription USPs. Making the above changes gave me more space to: 6. Add a short description that builds trust in the brand and product. Especially for new visitors who are not familiar with you. 7. Add FAQs. These are essential for any product (other than fashion, probably). They are great for SEO and answering all shopper questions. 8. Add USPs with icons. These are reasons why you should trust the brand and why the product is great. Other UX changes I made: - Removed the image thumbnails - Moved price close to the product name - Added the weight next to price to show value - Added service USPs below add-to-cart CTA Found this useful? Let me know in the comments! P.S. I haven't posted on LinkedIn in a while. And it's for a good reason. I was writing my Practical Guide to CRO e-book. Which is launching next week. It includes my processes, tools, techniques – everything you need to become a pro at CRO. If you're interested, comment "e-book" and I'll personally send you a link to buy it. #conversionrateoptimization

Trust at scale has always been the hardest thing to build in business. Word of mouth was the original mechanism. One person tells another, credibility transfers, trust builds slowly. It worked, but it was a limited mechanism you couldn't control. What's changed today is the infrastructure. Reach, repeated visibility to a large audience, is now one of the most powerful trust-building tools available to any founder or business. I am not saying being seen is the same as being trusted, but trust requires repeated exposure before it forms. The people and businesses that maintain high engagement at scale on their social media are the ones that showed up repeatedly, with a clear point of view, long before the numbers got impressive. Trust is a perception built over time through repeated signals: what you say, what you stand for, what you consistently show up for. Reach accelerates that process. Every post is another data point for your audience to evaluate whether your judgment is worth following. Enough of those data points, delivered consistently, and reach becomes evidence that you are someone worth trusting. The people and businesses who understand this aren't just building audiences. They're building credibility that makes everything else, fundraising, hiring, selling, structurally easier. #rajshamani #figuringout

Most brands spend a lot on media, but treat landing pages as an afterthought If you’re running ads and sending traffic to a homepage or a poorly built landing page, its almost criminal. Specially when gen AI has reduced the cost and time for content creation drastically Here’s how to get landing pages right. Consistently. 1. Match Intent, Not Just Aesthetics The #1 job of a landing page? Continue the conversation you started with your ad •If your ad says “energy efficient fans”, the landing page should show highlight this feature front and center •If your Google ad targets “Mixer Grinders under ₹5000,” don’t show ₹8000 models on the page. Message match > Visual design 2. Keep the Hero Section Clean & Focused Above-the-fold matters. You need to have •Clear headline – Say what the product is and why it’s special. •Key benefits – 3 crisp points max. •Visuals – High-quality product image or demo video. •CTA – One action. Not three. Buy Now,” “Book a Demo,” or “Know More”—but pick ONE 3. Product Benefits, Not Just Features Nobody cares that your mixer uses XYZ motor tech. I mean they do care but only if they care how it helps them They care a lot more that the mixer has a coarse mode which enables silbatta like texture resulting in great taste And that BLDC or intelligent motor tech enables it 4. Solve for Trust People are skeptical by default. Give them reasons to believe •Ratings & Reviews – Show real customer ratings (4.5 stars? Flaunt it). •Media Mentions – “As seen on The Hindu / NDTV” works. •Certifications – BEE 5-Star? BIS approved? Display badges. •Guarantees – Free returns? Warranty? Mention clearly 5. Speed & Mobile Optimization Today at least 80 percent of your traffic is mobile. If your landing page loads in 4 seconds, you’ve lost half. Aim for <2s load time. Avoid fancy animations that slow things down. Test your page on Mobile (3G/4G) and in all browsers Chrome, Safari etc 6. Minimize Distractions A landing page is not your website. •No top nav bars with 7 menu items. •No footer clutter. •No exit doors—except the CTA you want. Keep it focused. Keep them moving toward action 7. Strong CTA (Call to Action) •Make it obvious. One clear button. •Use actionable language: “Get My Free Sample,” “Book a Demo,” “Shop Now.” •Repeat CTA 2-3 times as they scroll, especially after key benefit sections. 8. A/B Test, but with caution: Gen AI makes it very easy to do so. Test •Headlines •CTA text and colors •Images vs Videos •Long-form vs Short-form copy But get the fundamentals of A/B testing right. You need statistically significant sample sizes for each test A good landing page doesn’t sell the product by itself. But It removes friction so the product has a better chance of selling And when done right, your CAC drops, your ROAS climbs, and your ads finally start working to their fullest potential

This morning, many people opened their favorite apps and nothing worked. A technical issue in Amazon’s data center rippled across the digital world, disrupting thousands of companies & millions of lives in real time. Here’s how big the impact was: Lyft riders were stranded. Snapchat wouldn’t load. Venmo couldn’t send or receive payments. Ring cameras went dark. Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney+ froze midstream. Fortnite, Roblox, Clash Royale, and Clash of Clans kicked players offline. Signal messages failed to deliver. Even Amazon’s own site, Alexa, and Prime Video stopped responding. For a few hours, entertainment stopped, payments froze, communication failed, and digital life itself hit pause. But I see something more.⁣ This wasn’t just a technology failure; it was an emotional one. Because experiences aren’t based on the outage itself. They’re defined by what happens in between; how people feel while it’s broken, and how they’re treated while they wait.⁣ As a business leader, I bet you want to retain loyal customers when unexpected challenges happen. So, here's what you do: 1️⃣ Acknowledge emotions quickly. Silence multiplies frustration. Even a short, human message, “We know this is frustrating, and we’re on it” restores calm faster than a generic tech update. 2️⃣ Communicate with clarity and care. Customers don’t need technical terms; they want reassurance. Say what it means for them: “We’re working to reconnect you, and your data is safe.” 3️⃣ Close the loop with gratitude and honesty. When systems recover, let customers know. Thank them for their patience, acknowledge the inconvenience, and share what’s been done. Transparency rebuilds confidence; appreciation restores connection. 4️⃣ Empower your people, especially your frontline teams. Technology can fix systems, but only people can fix feelings. Give your employees permission, training, and trust to respond with empathy. Top rated brands know technology may fail, but feelings don’t have to. Because what customers remember isn’t the outage; it’s how you made them feel when it happened.⁣ Got questions? Message me, and follow for more actionable proven strategies. Doing CX Right®‬ #customerexperience #customerservice #awsoutage

Customer experience doesn’t start at the front desk, the sales call, or the chatbot. It starts backstage, with the people who show up every day to make your business run. Think about it. 👉 A support agent who feels respected will go the extra mile to solve a customer’s problem. 👉 A retail worker who feels invisible will do the bare minimum to get through the shift. 👉 A developer who feels trusted will create solutions, not just follow instructions. The customer only sees the reflection of how your people are treated. Southwest Airlines has long been known for its customer-friendly culture. But if you ask their leaders, they’ll tell you the secret isn’t fancy slogans, it’s how they empower and celebrate their employees. The result? Passengers feel that energy in every interaction. On the flip side, we’ve all walked into a store where the staff looked drained and disengaged. No matter how many “We value our customers” posters are on the wall, the experience falls flat. The truth is simple: Happy employees don’t just serve customers, they inspire loyalty through the way they show up. Ask yourself: Do my people feel respected? Do they have room to grow? Do they feel trusted and heard? Because when the answer is yes, the customer feels it too. Take care of the humans who work for you, and they’ll take care of the humans who buy from you. That’s not soft leadership, it’s smart business. How are you creating that ripple effect in your team today? #careers #companyculture #leadership #bestadvice #linkedin

Firing middle managers won't accelerate decisions. The bottleneck just moves up. The middle-management culling continues. The promise: fewer layers means faster data and quicker decisions. Yet most organizations repeat the same mistake. When every meaningful decision still needs approval from the same five executives, you haven't solved anything. You've just hit the bottleneck faster. We've been here before: → ERP systems would revolutionize decision-making → Big data would unlock instant insights → Digital transformation would make us agile Now it's AI and flat hierarchies. Same promise, different wrapper. LegacyCo's governance trap isn't about having too many managers. It's about concentrating judgment at the top while expecting speed at the edges. "Have we pressure-tested this fully?" "What's our governance for downside risk?" "We need stronger stakeholder alignment." This isn't prudence. It's paralysis dressed as process. While others added approval layers, Ritz-Carlton gave frontline staff $2,000 discretionary authority. Decision time: days to minutes. Customer satisfaction: soared. The difference wasn't fewer managers. It was judgment distributed to where information lives. NewCo architects judgment into the system itself. Two roles make this possible: Forward Deployed Engineers (FDE): Technical talent with deployment authority. They see the problem, they fix it. No tickets, no committees. Operational Technologists (OpTech): Business experts who implement their own solutions. The person who knows the process can now improve the process. One brings code. One brings context. Both exercise judgment at market speed. An important distinction to make: distributed judgment without guardrails creates chaos, not speed. NewCo architects trust into the system: → Define clear decision boundaries upfront → Give teams authority within those boundaries → Treat every choice as an experiment → Measure outcomes in real-time, not quarterly → Escalate by exception, not default This is orchestrated judgment - wisdom scaled through systems, not hierarchies. To scale judgment means developing wisdom across the organization, not hoarding it at the top. This requires: → Clarity: Teams who understand impact, not just metrics → Discernment: Knowing which battles matter → Taste: Recognizing quality without committees → Connection: Building trust that enables autonomy Juniors tackle harder problems sooner. Teams develop judgment through practice, not observation. LegacyCo: "Check with me before you move" NewCo: "Move within these boundaries" One question leads to faster bottlenecks. The other leads to market-speed execution. The winners won't have the flattest org charts. They'll have the most distributed judgment. The question isn't how many managers to fire. It's how much judgment you're willing to trust others with.