Issue 14: A better approach: Trust, Ownership, and Patience.

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A BETTER APPROACH: TRUST, OWNERSHIP, AND PATIENCE.

Whilst perception can be a vital instrument in forming attitudes, a better approach is to be open and honest. That is the best foundation for building trust and community. It's even more important in sustaining the crucial areas of member retention and activity in any online community.
Owners must walk in their customers shoes. Trust has to be earned. If owners are perceived as honest and working in the interest of their members then trust should be inherent.

If our members trust the system they will enter their purchases and have patience.
If they have patience they will receive customers.
Once they receive customers, they will always trust and the community will grow.
As the community grows, less patience will be needed before receiving customers.

For trust to exist, both parties need a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. We should be upfront and honest about what determines the customer acquisition rate before the member commits to purchasing.

Members need to understand that we cannot CREATE CUSTOMERS for their merchants.
That is the job of the merchant. The customers we deliver are the natural uninfluenced purchases of other members. So, it stands to reason that those members with more referral URLs for popular in-demand merchants will receive customers faster. Ultimately the rate of customer acquistion is dependent on the merchants the member promotes and the size of the community.

What we do to help is:

*We find and direct purchase ready customers through a member's URL.

*We help you get your customers faster by running SEM campaigns targeted at getting customers for the merchants it's members promote.

*We improve customer acquisition by co-ordinating the Customer Reciprocation process asynchronously to allow members to purchase anywhere immediately and still be guaranteed a customer in return. Purchase from a community member and someone in the community will purchase from you. Your customer is not necessarily the person that you purchased from. From the community members perspective they still receive a customer, only faster.

*We help members work out what merchants have a higher sales rate to ensure rapid customer acquisition.

*We never charge a member for Customer Reciprocation until they receive a customer.

*We are doing everything we can to grow the community with members who wish to purchase at other members' affiliated merchants.

*We keep members up to date as to what they can do to improve customer acquistion.

*We guarantee we will never stop searching for customers as long as they're
owed.

If you wish to speed things along further you can help by:

* Adding additional referral URLs. The more merchants you promote the more potential customers there are. The "Watched Site" ranking facility can help you determine which merchants receive the most customers.

* Help grow the community. Just spread the word about the great benefits of SpinningTornado (purchase what you normally purchase and get guaranteed customers). The bigger the community, the more customers there are.

* Upgrade to Subscription membership. Subscription members are prioritised ahead of Standard members when customers are found.

Focusing on better communication:

* Having earned the initial trust of members placing purchase intentions in the system, our communications after a member purchases are critical.

* If members feel we are looking after their needs and they're not left in the dark, then trust will be maintained.

* We are working on treating members like humans by sending more personalised messages.

* Nothing is worse for trust than fulfilling your end of the bargain and
never hearing back from the other party. Perception is everything. Even if
something IS happening, communication updates are critical to keep the relationship
alive and maintain the perception that something is still happening.

* We will only send relevant and useful communication so that member enthusiasm for
our messages are not eroded.

Most important of all is to please remember that SpinningTornado is a work in progress, evolving through constant fine tuning and refining.
We are committed to building a community that is both fair minded and
beneficial to all our members and ask for little in return except the
chance to deliver on our promises.