Everyone talks about trust being critical. Everyone would agree that their organisation, business, and relationships are built on trust. Many say they know how to build trust and dismiss further discussion.
We can put the importance of trust for your business into precise numbers: 70-87%. Yes, trust drives 70-87% of your reputation, client satisfaction and loyalty. Trust is also the single biggest driver of new client consideration – up to 70%.
You kind of knew that, didn’t you? And, luckily, you are trusted. But what if we told you that this wasn’t enough? To turn trust into a strong competitive advantage and success factor, you have to consider six principles of trust.
It’s not about being trusted but about the level of trust.
Even a small, 20% change in trust can affect your client’s behaviour by 400% positively or negatively. Do you know where you sit on the scale?
If you aren’t more trusted than your competitor, any amount of trust doesn’t mean anything.
Only if you are more trusted are you more preferred. The more you are trusted over your competitor, the stronger your advantage.
Do you know where you stand against your competitors?
It is not just about being trusted, but what your clients want to trust you for.
Honesty, transparency, communication and a “great relationship” mean nothing if it’s not exactly what your (potential) customer wants to trust you for in order to do (more) business with you. Often, we discover that clients trust and say they have a great relationship but still don’t give the partner more work because, in some respects, they don’t trust for the right qualities.
What clients want to trust for, or in, can be broken down into six precise facets - TrustLogic® and our so-called Six Buckets of Trust®. Unless you can clearly define, what you need to be trusted for in each facet, you can’t consciously build and manage your trust. In fact, you may destroy as much trust as you build.
What the client doesn’t know, the client can’t trust for.
Building trust is about building the right trust equity. The more Trust Triggers® (proof) you can identify and convey, the more trust equity you can create. How many proof points come to mind right away? How well can you convey them to maximise the impact?
Trust is built and destroyed in an instant.
Building trust doesn’t take long. Building trust is done instantly with every right action and every right message. The same goes for destroying trust. Building more relevant trust is about knowing how to do more of the right things and fewer of the things (big and small) that push your trust down again.
Trust is a group effort.
In professional services, client trust is determined by the firm, partner, and product. The varying degrees of importance are a continuous source of discussion, but the bottom line (pardon the pun) is that each aspect’s trust builds upon the other. Considering that trust drives 85% of success, relying on the firm’s and partner’s natural ability and intuition to build trust may leave you stagnating or declining.
Understanding the sources of trust with TrustLogicÒ and aligning them makes building trust in professional services more complex but also much more powerful if done right. The firms and partners that best build and manage trust in the firm, partner and product will take more and more of the cake.
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