Who Do You Trust?
Complete strangers interact online every day. We "meet" on social networking websites, Yahoo groups and mailing lists. Or we find each other and various services and products through networking, elance, hotgigs (more from Alarm Clock), craigslist, and a growing list of classified and auction sites.
Then what? How do we move to the point that we are willing to trust this new contact? We've ordered from Amazon, Peapod and Think Geek for five years, but what's the variable that allows us to trust our fellow artist, widget maker, virtual assistant or other small time operator?
Or as Scott Allen puts it, "how do people create “transactional trust” in these person-to-person situations, when they have so little to go on?"
Enter RapLeaf, an OPEN version of eBay’s feedback system. As Techcrunch points out, limitations of eBay transaction ratings include:
" . . only eBay transactions can affect a user’s feedback score. (but) . . . these users (and more) buy and sell stuff through services other than eBay all the time, online and offline."
"If Rapleaf succeeds in their plans, it will make the Internet a better place to do business. And Rapleaf won’t be limited to online transactions."
In the Virtual Handshake blog Scott Allen published research he had done about what could best be done to improve transactional trust in social commerce,
"everything is centered on having a persistent, verifiable identity and history. While anonymity may feel safer for buyers and some sellers, it’s not conducive to building trust. Ideally, buyers and sellers both want to see:
- Verified identity
- Valid contact information – street address, phone, web site and e-mail
- Online social presence
- Feedback from others you’re done business with
- Ratings as a simple way to aggregate that feedback"
| Factor | Buyer rank | Seller rank |
|---|---|---|
| Posted ratings of the buyer | 1 | 2 |
| Reputation of the site or publication | 2 | 3 |
| Payment method you are using | 3 | 1 |
| Endorsements/testimonials | 4 | 6 |
| Intuition/gut-level reaction/prayer | 5 | 4 |
| E-mail or phone call with the buyer | 6 | 5 |
| Outside research of the buyer | 7 | 8 |
| Prior knowledge of the buyer | 8 | 7 |
| Personal appearance of the buyer | 9 | 9 |
If what you do involves anything outside eBay, setting up a RapLeaf reputation form should go on your to do list today. And if you want to share the information that Person A (or Susan Reynolds) is a real person and not a web scammer, now you can.
To leave feedback on people you've interacted with - online or off - RapLeaf is where it's at.
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