Goal
Address eBay’s trust perception issue by shaping customers’ expectations and providing evidence of trustworthiness at every interaction point with the brand and the marketplace.
Role
Project initiator and lead
Timeline
The project lasted 18 months, from inception to implementation.
Approach
I spearheaded the effort to bring together representatives from different teams, including Legal, policy enforcement, CS content, Infosec, Trust & Safety, user research, and brand marketing. Additionally, I partnered with an external authority and thought leader in trust design.
The working group identified and prioritized the root causes of eBay’s trust perception issue in a series of cross-functional, interactive workshops. We aligned on several solutions to build customer confidence and formed the workstreams needed to implement them.
To measure the experience over time, several trust-related variables were included in eBay’s monthly product tracker, which revealed an increase in Trust NPS (Net Promoter Score) and customer satisfaction with eBay’s resolution center.
Deliverables
The project delivered eBay’s trust design principles and messaging guidelines and a trust relationship framework. We also redesigned eBay’s security center and implemented a new editorial process for all trust-related communication. In addition, we reviewed and revised eBay’s policy and CS email templates. I also co-wrote a white paper with Piotr Cofta titled Redesigning the Seller Journey: An Exercise in Intentional Trust-Building.
The project was well-received by the trust research community, and I was invited to present the work as a case study at Interact 2011 in Lisbon, Portugal.
ANDREAS WOELK 