Would you trust a company that shows up at your home two hours after the fixed appointment, with an old rusty pickup truck? How about if the employee is dressed with stained clothes and leaves your home spitting on your land?
Without trust, no business relationship is possible. I would say that without trust, no relationship, be it friendship, with your life partner, or in a work relationship, is possible. But let’s go back to the business side ;).
What is trust? According to the the dictionary, trust is defined as the “feeling of security, of assurance, of firm hope inspired by someone or something”. I like that trust and the customer experience share this notion of feeling, of emotion. And both are intimately linked, of course.
During the customer journey Discovery > Evaluation > Purchase > Use > Support, the experience at each of these stages enhances or decreases the trust a client may feel in a brand and its products or services.
No step should be neglected. A negative experience at the beginning of the journey may inhibit the desire to go further and buy a product or service. At the end, it can cause an expression of dissatisfaction on social media, which will shake the trust of a potential customer.
Let’s not forget that the customer does not want to take the risk of being wrong. Certainly, to be mistaken affects the ego. But there are also the human, pecuniary, reputation consequences of a customer being wrong.
The customer wants to make the right choice, which is increasingly difficult with so many options, ensure that the product or service will be of quality, and pay the right price. This is why there are so many Facebook posts with questions like “Does someone in my network knows a good plumber / electrician / roofer / accountant / …?”
By relying – with good reason – on the recommendations of people we know, we minimize the risk of being wrong in the selection of a supplier or a product. But what makes a person recommend a company or product to a friend? It is simply that the customer experience has inspired trust, that it has met his/her expectations.
What is tainting trust?
Depending on the customer’s expectations, tolerance level and context, such as visiting a boutique versus a flea market, there are several things that can erode a customer’s trust.
Uncleanliness, dirty windows, stained menus, and the decrepitude of the places often cause restaurants guests to run – especially restaurant guests who question, and rightly so, the food safety that reigns in the kitchen. Again, it’s a question of trust.
In shops or services, incompetence and lack of knowledgeable employees has nothing to reassure customers. And this incompetence, combined with a certain nonchalance that says “I don’t care” amplifies mistrust.
Neglected appearance, stained or wrinkled clothing also send a negative signal.
Failure to honor a promise, whether a delivery or service delivery date, or a lack of quality of an ordered the product, leads to suspicion. And when that promise is broken many times, there is simply no more trust.
Other behaviors are also decried by customers, including the lack of transparency, blaming the customer if problems arise, and undelivered promises regarding a product or service.
It is the same with the promises that the company makes regarding its mission, vision and values. When they are not respected, the customer loses confidence.
In his book The Speed of Trust, Stephen Covey says: “The motive that inspires the greatest trust is genuine caring – caring about people, purposes, the quality of what you do, about society as a whole”.
Of course, there is a financial dimension that comes into play when we do business. But if the customer perceives respect, active listening, attention to work well done, and promises being delivered, a strong relationship will be built with customers, ensuring long-standing loyalty.
Originally published on Les Affaires blog – © Daniel Lafrenière – All rights reserved