One of the biggest challenges for any on-line business, especially on-line travel businesses is building trust with the on-line consumer. 

In my Tourism week post titled "Building On-line Credibility" I discussed ways that businesses can build their credibility on-line.  In this post, I am going to share with you my five favorite tools for building and sharing trust on-line. 

Some of these tools are free and some require payment, but they are all worthwhile ways to make your customers more comfortable with doing business with you and, most importantly, transacting with you, on-line:

1. Secure your site with RapidSSL.com

The most basic, and yet commonly forgotten, requirement of tourism e-commerce is site security.  I can't tell you how many small tourism websites, especially those from tour and activity providers, I have visited that have booking forms or reservation request forms that ask for personal information that are not secured using a secure certificate. 

It doesn't really matter if you are asking for credit card information or not, if you are asking a customer to devulge personal information in the form of a request to do business, you owe it to them to secure that information as best you can.  If you are asking for credit card information then securing the form and the subsequent success or failure page with a secure certificate is MANDATORY. 

If you are at all in the dark about why secure certificate is important, I recommend you take a look at this guide from RapidSSL.com.  This guide is a great primer for learning the ins and outs of website security.  If you don't have a secure certificate for your site, you can often purchase one through your website hosting company or you can purchase one directly from RapidSSL.com. 

Purchasing a certificate does require some technical knowledge so you will need to ask for help from your web host or web developer.  The cost of a secure certificate ranges from $79USD - $995 USD per year and the installation costs about $150 USD.  Alternatively, you can use a tour operator software or tour booking engine that already has security built into the system.

2. Get a real merchant account from PayPros, Versapay, Ogone or Eway

Notwithstanding the success of PayPal, WorldPay, 2Checkout and other payment systems, there is nothing more credible then having your own credit card merchant account.  If you already accept credit cards for your tourism business, then you already have a merchant account.  To do e-commerce, however, you must apply for and be approved for an e-commerce merchant account by your payment provider. 

The rules vary from country to country, but the basics are the same.  You WILL pay more for your e-commerce account then you will for your "card present" account because the risks are higher with e-commerce, but the convenience and opportunity costs tend to outweigh the increase in cost. 

The benefit to the customer and for your business, is instant payment and instant confirmation of payment.  The benefit from a trust standpoint is that the customer remains on your secure site (see 1.)  throughout the payment process and that their credit card statements has your company name on it versus "2CheckOut" or "PayPal * Your name".  The costs of setting up a merchant vary from country to country. 

We recommend the following:

• US - Paypros
• Canada - Verspay
• Europe - Ogone
• Australia - Eway

3. Run secure scans with Security Metrics

When you start accepting payments on-line, you will be required to run security scans on your website and to be "PCI Compliant".  Depending on the volume of transactions you push through your website, your requirements for compliance will vary.  Small companies that do less than $1 Million in on-line transactions require a level of compliance that includes a server scan and a self assessment.

Companies that do more than $1 Million require a higher level of compliance that includes an on-site visit and daily security scans.  This level of compliance can be very expensive.  The basic level of compliance will cost about $99 USD per year from a company like Security Metrics.  The higher level compliance can cost from $7,000 USD to $20,000 USD per year.   If you want to read more about PCI Compliance, you can download this ebook titled "PCI Compliance for Dummies" from QualSys.

It's a pretty good resource, but remember it is a marketing piece for Qualsys as well. As with the secure certificate, it may make sense to use an on-line reservation software that is already PCI Compliant in order to save you the costs and headaches of going through the PCI Compliance requirements yourself.

4. Set-up your Privacy Policy and Seal with TRUSTe

How you handle your customer's sensitive private information is critical to creating a trusted relationship with your current and potential customers. 

TRUSTe is the best known and most credible on-line privacy services companies.  TRUSTe offers a privacy service and seal program which allows businesses of any size (including small businesses) the ability to create a standards compliant privacy policy and to display a seal certifying that your business complies with the standards outlined in your privacy policy. 

The Privacy Service program is available for $49 USD per month and is a great way to make your privacy policy transparent.  It is critical however that if you commit to using this program that you understand the requirements and act on your policy when necessary.  Betraying customer trust by not complying with the terms of your own privacy policy can be even more devastating to your credibility then not having a policy in the first place.

5. Display your association seal or certification mark

Unlike travel agents or tour operators that must be certified or belong to an industry association, small destination based operators are not generally required to be part of a large certification body like IATA, ACTA (in Canada) or ABTA (in the U.K.). 

These organizations, by virtue of their industry brand, are comforting to the consumer because they know that they are protected, to some degree.  Belonging to these organization is an expensive proposition however and requires, in some cases, tens of thousands of dollars in bonds. 

Destination operators can build trust by making it known that they belong to a business organization like their local Chamber of Commerce, Tourism Association, or the Better Business Bureau.  Many of these organizations will have badge that you can place on your site that links back to your listing on their website. 

Obtaining this badge may take time because it will involve a verification process, but it is worthwhile to consider. 

Stephen A. Joyce has been working as a travel & tourism technology consultant since 1995. In 2005 Stephen and his company, Sentias Software Corp., began development on Rezgo.com, a next generation Web 2.0 tour and activity booking engine for SME travel suppliers and tour operators. In June of 2007, Rezgo.com was officially released and now boasts a user base of 650+ companies. 

www.tourismtechnology.rezgo.com