Deceptive practices are more common than one might think. Our experiences with clients have uncovered instances where sales pressure, or individual motivations, led to regular use of lies by sales and service staff to secure a sale, an upgrade, or a better score. Additionally, we've encountered numerous cases where teams find ways to bypass internal systems.
Engaging with these teams and gaining their trust to discuss such practices is intriguing. This often occurs through one-on-one interviews conducted with absolute confidentiality. Surprisingly, the solutions to these issues are often not as complex as they may seem.
Many lies and omissions stem from a lack of self-trust and trust in the organisation. Frontline staff, in particular, may possess limited knowledge about the organisation and what makes it trustworthy. This lack of understanding is not confined to the frontline, as even senior executives often struggle to articulate the factors that make their organisations and themselves trustworthy. Consequently, the impressive qualities that could contribute to trustworthiness often go unnoticed at the frontline. In our findings, clients typically utilise only about 5% of their available trust equity and lack systems to identify, document, and leverage their trust equity – what we term Trust Triggers® – for building crucial internal trust, which, in turn, impacts external trust.
Through our intervention with these teams, we've witnessed a significant increase in their self-trust and trust in the organisation, managers, and other departments. As a result, deceptive practices like lies and omissions diminish, as these teams learn how to establish the right trust with customers to achieve the desired outcomes. A participant in our sales programme attested, "Before learning about the Six Buckets of Trust and understanding what we can be trusted for, I always stuck to the script. Now I trust myself to answer any question and build the right trust in myself and [Brand]."
Consider the ripple effect on both the customer experience and the work environment for your teams. Adding to this, numerous studies indicate that higher trust leads to increased compliance and a reduced risk of fraud. It's worth exploring the benefits of integrating a bit of TrustLogic® into your business practices.
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