How We Decide What to Buy Has Changed — But Trust Hasn't
From Catalogs to AI, Technology Keeps Changing How We Find Businesses. One Thing Hasn't Changed: Who We Trust.
The way consumers discover products and services has changed dramatically.
For generations, businesses have adapted to each new technology that came along.
Catalogs.
Newspapers.
Radio.
Television.
Direct mail.
The internet.
Search engines.
Social media.
Smartphones.
And now artificial intelligence.
Each innovation has made it easier for businesses to reach consumers and easier for consumers to find businesses.
But something interesting happened along the way.
Finding businesses became incredibly easy.
Knowing which businesses to trust became increasingly difficult.
And that's where the next chapter of this story begins.
A Century of Changing Consumer Behavior
The infographic on this page provides an interesting look at how communication between businesses and consumers evolved over more than a century.
At one time, catalogs allowed businesses to reach consumers far beyond their storefronts.
Radio brought advertising directly into people's homes.
Television added sight, sound and emotion.
The internet gave consumers unprecedented access to information.
Search engines made that information searchable.
Social media connected consumers and businesses directly.
Smartphones put all of it in our pockets.
Every technological shift changed how businesses reached customers.
And every shift changed how consumers made purchasing decisions.
Then Everything Became Available Everywhere
Today, if you need a plumber, you can find hundreds of them in seconds.
Need a restaurant?
Your phone can show you dozens nearby.
Looking for a contractor?
Search engines, maps, social media, directories and artificial intelligence can produce choices almost instantly.
The problem is no longer access to information.
The problem is deciding which information deserves your trust.
Advertisements can be precisely targeted.
Search results can be optimized.
Businesses can pay for greater visibility.
Reviews may come from people you've never met.
Online content can be generated at enormous scale.
And increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence can create photographs, voices, videos and messages that appear remarkably convincing.
Consumers aren't suffering from too little information anymore.
We're overwhelmed by it.
More Information Doesn't Always Mean More Confidence
Think about the last time you searched online for a local service.
Perhaps you needed a:
-
Plumber
-
Electrician
-
Contractor
-
Dentist
-
Mechanic
-
Real estate agent
-
Restaurant
Within seconds, you probably had more choices than you could realistically evaluate.
So what did you do?
You looked at ratings.
Read some reviews.
Visited a few websites.
Compared prices.
Maybe asked artificial intelligence.
And there's a good chance that after doing all of that you still wondered:
“But who should I actually call?”
That's the modern consumer problem.
Technology solved discovery.
It hasn't completely solved trust.
The One Thing That Never Changed
There's another way this conversation frequently goes.
You need a plumber.
You ask your neighbor:
“Do you know somebody good?”
They immediately respond:
“Absolutely. We used someone last year. I'll send you their number.”
Suddenly your search looks very different.
Why?
Because the information came with something technology has difficulty reproducing:
A trusted relationship.
Your neighbor isn't an advertisement.
Your friend isn't trying to rank first in a search result.
Your brother isn't optimizing his recommendation for an algorithm.
They're simply telling you about their experience.
That basic human behavior has survived every technological revolution shown in this infographic.
Word-of-Mouth Never Disappeared
People sometimes talk about word-of-mouth as though it's an old-fashioned form of marketing.
It's not.
It's a human behavior.
People naturally share good experiences.
We tell friends about restaurants we love.
We give neighbors the names of contractors who did excellent work.
We recommend doctors, mechanics, attorneys, landscapers and countless other businesses.
The problem with traditional word-of-mouth isn't trust.
The problem is memory and reach.
Someone tells you about a great electrician today.
Eight months from now you need an electrician.
What was the name?
Who recommended them?
Where did you put the number?
That's the problem technology actually can help solve.
The Next Evolution: Putting Relationships Online
This is the idea behind ClickFirst.
We're not trying to replace word-of-mouth with technology.
We're using technology to make word-of-mouth more useful.
ClickFirst gives consumers a place to save businesses they trust, share their recommendations and discover businesses recommended by friends, family, neighbors and other people they know.
A recommendation doesn't have to disappear after a conversation.
It can be saved.
Shared.
Found again.
And potentially help another person make a better decision months or even years later.
We like to think of it very simply:
ClickFirst gives word-of-mouth a home online.
What This Means for Local Businesses
This evolution matters just as much for business owners.
For decades, businesses were told that success meant getting their message in front of more people.
More newspaper readers.
More radio listeners.
More television viewers.
More website visitors.
More search impressions.
More social followers.
Visibility still matters.
But visibility alone isn't enough.
A business can appear at the top of a search result and still not be trusted.
The businesses with a lasting advantage are the ones that do something much harder:
They give customers an experience worth recommending.
That's why ClickFirst brings two ideas together.
Get found. Get trusted.
Local visibility helps people discover your business.
Great customer experiences give people a reason to trust it.
Recommendations help that trust travel from one person to another.
Technology helps preserve and extend those recommendations.
The Consumer Has Changed — And So Has Marketing
The modern consumer doesn't simply receive advertising.
Consumers search.
Compare.
Research.
Read.
Ask.
Verify.
And increasingly, they decide when and how they want to interact with a business.
That means the role of the local business has changed too.
Marketing isn't simply about broadcasting a message anymore.
It's about being:
Findable.
Useful.
Responsive.
Trustworthy.
And most importantly:
Worth recommending.
From Advertising to Trust
Look again at the history shown in the infographic.
Catalogs changed commerce.
Radio changed advertising.
Television changed advertising again.
The internet changed everything.
Mobile put the internet everywhere.
Social media turned consumers into publishers.
Artificial intelligence is changing how information is created and discovered once again.
The technology will continue to change.
But after more than a century of innovation, one remarkably simple behavior remains:
We still ask people we trust what they recommend.
That's not outdated.
It may actually be more valuable than ever.
The ClickFirst Consumer Rule
When you're making an important local purchasing decision, remember four simple words:
ASK. CHECK. VERIFY. DECIDE.
ASK people you trust for recommendations.
CHECK the business and compare your options.
VERIFY the information that matters.
DECIDE with confidence.
Technology gives you access to information.
Relationships help give that information context.
Use both.
Technology Changes. Trust Doesn't.
The history of consumer purchasing is really a history of changing technology.
But the future doesn't have to mean choosing between technology and human relationships.
We can use one to strengthen the other.
That's what we're building at ClickFirst.
For consumers: a better way to save, share and discover trusted local businesses.
For businesses: a better way to get found and turn great customer experiences into lasting relationships and referrals.
And for everyone:
A better way to buy with confidence.
People You Know. Businesses You Trust.
Before You Purchase. Before You Hire. Before You Decide. CLICK FIRST.
More Information
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