Trust

In today’s world there certainly isn’t much trust between people or at least that is how it seems. How does trust or the lack of it affect you? In this post we are going to talk about “Trust” and why it is so important to your business.

Everywhere you look today there are people seemingly going out of their way to make sure that no one trusts them and then they get upset when no one does! They lie, steal, cheat, try to get more than they paid or worked for and the list goes on. They may win in the short term but in the long run it is going to cost them far more than they gained.

What does “Trust” have to do with your business, well in a word – everything.

Let’s say that you are a contractor and you do home remodeling. You go to someone’s home, you go over what they want to have done and then they hesitate to do business with you. When they do this you get upset and move on to the next person and before you know it you have no business so you start to blame the economy!

You need to build trust with your customers and prospects. Depending on the situation and the many factors that go into it, this can be done quickly or it can take quite a bit of time. Studies have shown that it can take 6 – 9 times of someone hearing your message, seeing your information, etc. Before they will lower their walls of resistance (for more on this subject, check out our other blog posts that cover this in detail).

How else do you build trust with your customers and prospects? It isn’t all that hard but it may seem like it is. If you want to be trusted be trustworthy. I know that is an oversimplification of the issue but it is accurate.

If you tell someone that you are going to call them at a certain time, call them. If you are supposed to be at an appointment at a certain time, be there. I know there are times when you can’t make the call and you can’t get there on time but that has to be the exception not the rule.

Recently we were working with a company where the owner of the company was never on time and I mean never. He would call the office or worse, he would call a customer and tell them he would be there in 10 minutes but would show up a few hours later – HOURS!

He would have his employees come in early so they could go over some things that he thought was important. The employee would rearrange their schedule, get a sitter for their children in some instances or another would change their doctor appointments to make sure they were there for the meeting and the owner would never show up. The crazy part is that he couldn’t understand why they were upset! We warned him that bad things were coming if he didn’t stop his foolish behavior but he thought he knew better.

This is no way to build trust and no way to build a company with a future. Speaking of the future he is on his way out of business after years of building a terrible reputation with everyone and now blaming everyone but himself.

Do all that you can to build trust with your customers and prospects. If you offer them something make sure that you deliver it. If you can, go the extra mile, deliver more than you promised. If something goes wrong call your customers and tell them, do not put it off. Likewise, if things are going right, call your customers and give them the good news so they know you are there for them in the good times as well as in the bad times.

If you have a better solution for your customers and it will cost less and you will make less, tell them what their options are. If it will cost more let them know and let them know why and give them the option to make the decision, don’t hide things.

Look at everything that you do through the eyes of your customer or prospect; this is what the word empathy refers to. See it from their perspective.

Remember the example above of the home remodeler? Let’s look at this through the eyes of the homeowner. The contractor sees it as a job but the homeowner sees it as an invasion.

This isn’t just a house, this is their home. Their privacy will be up in the air for a while; their children will be exposed to strangers. Even though they want the home to be upgraded they don’t want the house torn apart and left that way.

In today’s world of phone cameras and instant messaging, TV shows about problem contractors, people are more afraid of businesses than ever. They don’t know if you will do them right or wrong. It is your job to take away their fears, how? We will dig into Risk Reversal in another post.

Stay tuned for more information on how to build trust but for now, do all you can to build “Trust” with your customers and prospects and they will “Trust” you with their money!

About the Author:

around and helped others grow beyond their dreams. He has helped tiny startups become major players and major players stay at the top.

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