Communications are the source to inspire desirable outcomes. What is the key to your building a loyal customer and customer trust? In my opinion, effective communication is the cornerstone of any optimum customer trust. In today’s fast-paced business world, having a range of communication channels available such as phone, e-mail, instant messaging, fax, etc. is key to maximizing your ability to communicate effectively and ultimately build customer trust.
The most valuable business commodity is trust. Richard Branson, author, and founder of Virgin Group says:
“Building trust in your brand isn’t easy to achieve and it may take time, but it doesn’t have to come at a high cost. With honesty, ambition, hard work and attention to detail, you can instill a level of trust that will enable you to move forward.”
The fact is that integrity impacts all aspects of business and is among, if not the most important character trait for a company to have. It is the barometer by which your customers, potential business partners, and employees evaluate you and your business.
Related: Improve Customer Engagement to Win Business
A trustworthy business can be defined in many different ways depending upon the person, business, or organization reviewing it. Here are five ways you can build trust in your business:
Loyal customer … deliver on what you say
Doing what you say you are going to do when you say you’re going to do it is crucial to building trust. Famous entrepreneur and motivational speaker Jim Rohn said,
“One customer well taken care of could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising.”
Building customer trust by communicating effectively
Effective communication is the cornerstone of any successful company. In today’s fast-paced business world, having a range of communication channels available such as phone, e-mail, instant messaging, fax, etc. is key to maximizing your ability to communicate effectively with customers.
Consistency goes hand in hand with providing great service build on solid trust. Internal expectations lead to external results. From a business perspective, consistency applies to every aspect of who you are and what you do.
Potential customers and business partners will search for information about you and your business online. According to a survey conducted by Dimensional Research, 90 percent of respondents who recalled reading online reviews claimed that positive online reviews influenced buying decisions, while 86 percent said buying decisions were influenced by negative online reviews.
It’s crucial to manage your online reputation and establish an active social media presence, website and blog.
Transparency
Transparency is another competency that should come naturally. Yet so many businesses have trouble coming to terms with what it really means.
Customers and clients are smart. They know when you’re being up front or when they are told a mistruth. If honesty is the best policy, they’ll appreciate and admire you more when you admit to a mistake, rather than playing games or even worse, avoiding the topic altogether.
Don’t try to hide or cover up your errors. Address the issue directly, explain how you will handle it and share what steps are being taken to prevent the errors from occurring in the future.
Related post: Client Engagement … 4 Actions To Improve Engagement
Example to illustrate
Here is an example from a recent personal experience. It illustrates that an absence of communications represents a means to lose customer trust. Let me elaborate.
On the recent weekend, we expected family and friends would be dropping by at irregular intervals with their various activities — making regular meals less likely.
I decided to stop at a favorite sandwich shop near our Cayuga home in upstate New York to pick up some bite-size deli sandwiches so we would have some easy snacks available whenever anyone was hungry. However, we are not fans of their lox and cream cheese sandwiches which are part of their pre-made party platters.
I asked if I could get a selection without these sandwiches and they confirmed this was possible — but would require a wait while they made up the platter. No problem. I placed my order and said I would be back in the recommended 15 minutes.
When I returned to pick up my order they rang it up and I was surprised that the price had increased by 50% versus the posted price. When I questioned the accuracy of the bill, I was informed that mine was a custom order and this resulted in the surcharge. This was the first I heard of any surcharge. It was also something never charged in the past.
I asked to speak to the manager since I felt they should have mentioned this when I placed my order so I could have decided whether I wanted to; 1) pay the surcharge, 2) take the standard platter, or 3) not order at all.
The manager claimed he was unaware of the surcharge and would look into it — but was unwilling to take any action.
I left wondering what function this manager played. He claimed ignorance of a policy that a cashier was implementing — yet was unwilling or unable to do anything about the policy.
More importantly, I was surprised by his complete lack of interest in the issue. It was simply, “I don’t know and I don’t care”.
Of course, the issue was not the charge or the amount. The issue was that an extra charge was not clearly communicated to me and the result was that I was surprised by the change.
This left me feeling trapped into a purchase I may not have wanted. And the lack of communication at the start and the lack of management action at the end clearly destroyed my business trust.
On a more expensive purchase, in addition to breaking trust, this could lead to embarrassment if the customer was unwilling or unable to pay the demanded amount.
It is critical that any extra charges be clearly communicated to customers before the service is provided.
Plus, it is equally important to make sure that you communicate the reason(s) for the extra charge in a manner that demonstrates value to the customer.
Transparency is a key driver of customer trust which supports satisfaction and loyalty. Don’t risk losing a customer because you assume they understand your pricing structure and that there are no hidden surprises.
Need some help in building better customer trust from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer relationships?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on customer engagement from our library:
Complaint Management … Tips for Small Business Success
Complaint Handling … 14 Effective Business Relationship Recommendations
What is the key to your building customer trust? In my opinion, effective communication is the cornerstone of any optimum customer trust. In today’s fast-paced business world, having a range of communication channels available such as phone, e-mail, instant messaging, fax, etc. is key to maximizing your ability to communicate effectively and ultimately build customer trust.
Communications are the source to inspire desirable outcomes.
The most valuable business commodity is trust. Richard Branson, author and founder of Virgin Group says:
“Building trust in your brand isn’t easy to achieve and it may take time, but it doesn’t have to come at a high cost. With honesty, ambition, hard work, and attention to detail you can instill a level of trust that will enable you to move forward.”
The fact is that integrity impacts all aspects of business and is among, if not the most important character trait for a company to have. It is the barometer by which your customers, potential business partners, and employees evaluate you and your business.
Related: 10 Laws of Customer Experience Design
A trustworthy business can be defined in many different ways depending upon the person, business, or organization reviewing it. Here are five ways you can build trust in your business:
Deliver on what you say
Doing what you say you are going to do when you say you’re going to do it is crucial to building trust. Famous entrepreneur and motivational speaker Jim Rohn said,
“One customer well taken care of could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising.”
Communicate effectively
Effective communication is the cornerstone of any successful company. In today’s fast-paced business world, having a range of communication channels available such as phone, e-mail, instant messaging, fax, etc. is key to maximizing your ability to communicate effectively with customers.
Consistent service
Consistency goes hand in hand with providing great service build on solid trust. Internal expectations lead to external results. From a business perspective, consistency applies to every aspect of who you are and what you do.
Build a solid reputation
Potential customers and business partners will search for information about you and your business online. According to a survey conducted by Dimensional Research, 90 percent of respondents who recalled reading online reviews claimed that positive online reviews influenced buying decisions, while 86 percent said buying decisions were influenced by negative online reviews.
It’s crucial to manage your online reputation and establish an active social media presence, website, and blog.
Transparency
Transparency is another competency that should come naturally. Yet so many businesses have trouble coming to terms with what it really means.
Customers and clients are smart. They know when you’re being upfront or when they are told a mistruth. If honesty is the best policy, they’ll appreciate and admire you more when you admit to a mistake, rather than playing games or even worse, avoiding the topic altogether.
Don’t try to hide or cover up your errors. Address the issue directly, explain how you will handle it, and share what steps are being taken to prevent the errors from occurring in the future.
Example to illustrate
Here is an example from a recent personal experience. It illustrates that an absence of communications represents a means to lose customer trust. Let me elaborate.
On the recent weekend, we expected family and friends would be dropping by at irregular intervals with their various activities — making regular meals less likely.
I decided to stop at a favorite sandwich shop near our Cayuga home in upstate New York to pick up some bite-size deli sandwiches so we would have some easy snacks available whenever anyone was hungry. However, we are not fans of their lox and cream cheese sandwiches which are part of their pre-made party platters.
I asked if I could get a selection without these sandwiches and they confirmed this was possible — but would require a wait while they made up the platter. No problem. I placed my order and said I would be back in the recommended 15 minutes.
When I returned to pick up my order they rang it up and I was surprised that the price had increased by 50% versus the posted price. When I questioned the accuracy of the bill, I was informed that mine was a custom order and this resulted in the surcharge. This was the first I heard of any surcharge. It was also something never charged in the past.
I asked to speak to the manager since I felt they should have mentioned this when I placed my order so I could have decided whether I wanted to; 1) pay the surcharge, 2) take the standard platter, or 3) not order at all.
The manager claimed he was unaware of the surcharge and would look into it — but was unwilling to take any action.
I left wondering what function this manager played. He claimed ignorance of a policy that a cashier was implementing — yet was unwilling or unable to do anything about the policy.
More importantly, I was surprised by his complete lack of interest in the issue. It was simply, “I don’t know and I don’t care”.
My Perspective
Of course, the issue was not the charge, or the amount. The issue was that an extra charge was not clearly communicated to me and the result was that I was surprised by the change.
This left me feeling trapped into a purchase I may not have wanted. And the lack of communication at the start and the lack of management action at the end clearly destroyed my business trust.
On a more expensive purchase, in addition to breaking trust, this could lead to embarrassment if the customer was unwilling or unable to pay the demanded amount.
It is critical that any extra charges be clearly communicated to customers before the service is provided.
Plus, it is equally important to make sure that you communicate the reason(s) for the extra charge in a manner that demonstrates value to the customer.
Transparency is a key driver of customer trust which supports satisfaction and loyalty. Don’t risk losing a customer because you assume they understand your pricing structure and that there are no hidden surprises.
Need some help in building better customer trust from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer relationships?
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
More reading on customer engagement from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Be a Customer-Focused Business by Consumer Engagement
Whole Food’s Customer Engagement Using Social Media
Influence Consumer Behavior by Personalization Strategies
What is the key to being able to build trust? In my opinion, there are many essential elements and not just one. In today’s fast-paced business world, having a range of trust elements is key to better customer retention. In this blog, I’ll explain how ESPN builds trust to keep customers on board.
The most valuable business commodity is trust. Richard Branson, author, and founder of Virgin Group says:
“Building trust in your brand isn’t easy to achieve and it may take time, but it doesn’t have to come at a high cost. With honesty, ambition, hard work and attention to detail, you can instill a level of trust that will enable you to move forward.”
He could have been speaking for ESPN, yes?
Background
Customer trust is a must in today’s hyper-competitive, ultra-connected business environment. ESPN knows this well.
Everyone wants to do business with companies they trust. The one constant that all executives seek for their organization is a competitive advantage.
But as the widespread availability of high-speed networks has made it possible for companies of all sizes to compete on a global scale. It’s becoming more and more difficult for brands to distinguish themselves on a product, price, or even quality.
One trait that does separate exceptional companies from also-rans is the level of trust they engender with their customers. Customers prefer to do business with organizations that have gained their confidence.
As we noted on many occasions, customer trust is gained through two interlaced faculties: good intent and competence.
According to a Concerto Marketing Group and Research Now survey, when customers trust a brand, 83 percent will recommend a trusted company to others and 82 percent will continue to use that brand frequently.
While hardly anyone talks about the time you went above and beyond for a customer, you’ll certainly hear from the disgruntled ones. This is especially true if you failed to make a deadline or delivered a product that didn’t do what you promised.
ESPN builds trust … defining trust
Trust, in a customer or consumer behavior context, is defined here as the attainment of a level of satisfaction and resulting loyalty. Loyalty at which customers are comfortable forgoing problem-solving behavior.
Rather, they repurchase a particular product or set of products in a routinized or habitual fashion.
Why customer trust?
The reason customer trust is so critical today is that we’re no longer thinking just in terms of transactions. ESPN is thinking in terms of relationships
Business is a people activity, people like to do business with people they know, like, and trust. Ones with whom they have relationships are at the top of the desirable business option list.
The stronger the relationships with your customers, the greater will be their trust and loyalty in your business. So it is very logical for businesses to put a priority on building customer relationships.
ESPN builds trust … how to build trust
Every organization looking for a sustainable competitive advantage needs one thing: customer trust.
Here are six ways ESPN gains it, builds it, and retains it.
Companies should provide customers with online forums or other means for interacting with their firm, as well as with each other.
This is another way for companies to demonstrate their transparency with customers.
In addition to gathering solicited customer feedback, it’s also important to analyze customer sentiment about a company and its products that are delivered via interactions across all channels and touchpoints.
This includes mining customer sentiments that can be gleaned in a multitude of ways.
Better customer retention … deliver on what you say
Doing what you say you are going to do when you say you’re going to do it is crucial to building trust. Famous entrepreneur and motivational speaker Jim Rohn said,
One customer well taken care of could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising.
Consistent service
Consistency goes hand in hand with providing great service build on solid trust. Internal expectations lead to external results. From a business perspective, consistency applies to every aspect of who you are and what you do.
Ensure a quality product or service, delivered on time, well executed, and reasonably priced. This is imperative for business survival. Demanding customers expect nothing less.
Communicate effectively
Effective communication is the cornerstone of any successful company, especially a media one.
In today’s fast-paced business world, having a range of communication channels available such as phone, e-mail, instant messaging, fax, etc. is key to maximizing your ability to communicate effectively with customers.
Build a solid reputation
Potential customers and business partners will search for information about you and your business online. According to a survey conducted by Dimensional Research, 90 percent of respondents who recalled reading online reviews claimed that positive online reviews influenced buying decisions.
Only 86 percent said buying decisions were influenced by negative online reviews.
It’s crucial to manage your online reputation and establish an active social media presence, website and blog.
ESPN shows the way.
Keep customers returning … use transparency
Transparency is another competency that should come naturally. Yet so many businesses have trouble coming to terms with what it really means.
Customers and clients are smart. They know when you’re being up front or when they are told a mistruth.
If honesty is the best policy, they’ll appreciate and admire you more when you admit to a mistake, rather than playing games or even worse, avoiding the topic altogether.
Don’t try to hide or cover up your errors. Address the issue directly, explain how you will handle it.
Share what steps are being taken to prevent the errors from occurring in the future.
Studies show time and again, loyal customers are the aptest to tell their friends about your business, creating strong word of mouth marketing.
And as we have said many times … word of mouth marketing is the most important element of any marketing campaign.
So there are many important reasons to focus on building strong customer relationships.
We highlight three critical enablers of trust within employee intent and employee competence that can be operationalized without great difficulty.
Let’s examine these important enablers:
ESPN builds trust … employee intent
Empathy, transparency, and accountability are three enablers of employee intent. Having empathy for customers, and treating them the way you would want to be treated, is one of the most important elements of goodwill.
Empathy requires firms to proactively anticipate customer needs and reach out to them to offer relevant products and services, even if it means losing money in the short term.
One way to operationalize empathy is to communicate all the best options to customers without being asked. It is always good to empower employees to take such actions.
For example, customer care from a cable provider may mean adjusting a customer’s rate plan to a new plan that best suits their needs and is $20 cheaper. This may mean losing $120 in the short term. But it can lead to the customer renewing or keeping his contract.
Transparency meanwhile sounds simple enough, but can in practice be difficult. Some firms equate transparency with giving up control.
That’s simply not the case. It can come down to simple activities like clarifying the language of your policies, actively using external social media channels to communicate with customers, and being open to feedback and criticism from customers.
And accountability is about taking responsibility when customers go through any negative experiences. This may involve compensating customers for the inconvenience and correcting any mistakes even at increased costs.
We consider that employee competence is made up of the customer experience, employee empowerment, and employee recognition.
Customer experience is about being consistent and credible to customers.
It goes beyond delivering high-quality products and services and involves building relationships with customers that will encourage positive word-of-mouth and referrals.
As an example, for a telecom operator whose has received large amounts of calls due to network issues, this might mean sending a simple text message to customers who experience dropped calls with an offer of free minutes or other credits as a compensation.
Or it could also mean letting customers know that the operator is aware of the network problem and is proactively working to resolve it.
Employee empowerment requires firms to train and authorize employees to take necessary actions to earn customer’s trust.
Building customer influence and trust is not a simple action. It takes consistent effort by the employees on all these enablers. Over time.
It requires a fact-based analysis of customers and their needs, understanding the firm’s competitive position, and performing in-depth capability assessment.
But trust-based initiatives such as these have a real business impact. Trust makes customers less price sensitive and less interested in competitive offers.
It creates a sustainable competitive advantage by directly lead to the acquisition, retention, and growth of the firm’s customer base. They have great payoffs.
Here are 14 tips to help you assure customers and forge new, and strengthen existing, relationships and trust, just like ESPN does it:
People all have something to say
… offer vehicles for your community to express themselves and tell their story.
See the article: A Story of Amazon and Listening to Customer Input.
Be friendly and genuine
… focus on making friends.
The need for a trust-based relationship can’t be denied. But marketing executives who want to build customer trust have one question: How?
People seek out the comfort of human relationships
… provide them with clear access to a community (it may even be their own).
See the article: How to Build Better Customer Relationships.
Smile and be pleasant to be around
… Smiling is not rocket science and makes a BIG difference.
Be specific
… For example: “Mr. Smith your car will be ready at 4:15 pm today” is much more specific (and believable) than “Mr. Smith, your car will be ready later today”. Details tell them you know what you’re doing and that you have the situation under control.
Be a good listener
… Hear and remember the ‘remarkable’ for the next visit.
Tell the truth, ALWAYS
… with no hidden agendas and ulterior motives. Marketing puffery is not the truth, consumers are very educated on products and services.
Make notes
… As you talk with them, take time to write down details of the situation. Even if you’re talking over the phone, ask them to pause for a moment so you can take notes. This tells them you are serious about helping them and you want to get all the information you can.
Make customers feel important
… Be authentic at all costs, however.
Retention strategies … create conversation
… Seek out common interests by asking effective questions.
Make a promise to them
… A great way to assure people is to make a promise. Commit to something and give them your word. Then you are honor-bound to get it done. People respect others who make a promise and then keep it. It builds great credibility and loyalty.
Use multiple ways to connect and close
…Always do what you say.
People need to feel valued
… offer tokens of appreciation and recognition which may include badges, rewards, exclusive access, and the like.
People crave discovery
… help them learn about new things such as ideas, places, music, food, destinations and what be it. We all want to feel like we’re among the first few to know about something.
Customers come to us for one of two reasons. They want our help to accomplish something or to avoid something. They know the outcome they want. They engage our expertise and resources to get there.
And when customers choose us, they do so with a certain amount of risk. They risk their time and money. But, most importantly, they risk not getting what they came to us for.
Example of customer trust to illustrate
My Perspective
Of course, the issue was not the charge or the amount. The issue was that an extra charge was not clearly communicated to me and the result was that I was surprised by the change. Not something that engendered trust, was it?
The bottom line
Transparency is a key driver of customer trust which supports satisfaction and loyalty. Don’t risk losing a customer because you assume they understand your pricing structure and that there are no hidden surprises.
Need some help in building better customer trust from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer relationships?
Call today for aFREEconsultation or aFREEquote. Learn about some options to scope your job and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on customer service from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Stunning Customer Service Lessons and Their Examples
10 Guarantees of Poor Customer Service
Best Buy Lessons in Customer Service
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