Life would not be the same if you did not trust strangers. For instance, when you eat out you trust that the cook has washed his or her hands after using the bathroom. When you send your kids off on the school bus you need to trust that the driver is competent. When you drive your car you have to trust that other drivers will not run red lights and stay in their lanes. Trust is a cornerstone of society.
When individuals or businesses make a purchase, lives are usually not at stake but money, reputation and a career can be. When putting these things on the line we're putting trust in others whether we realize it or not. But even if we were to stop and think about it, why would we trust one company vs. another? What should a company do in order to be trusted?
Well wait, what is trust anyway?
The word trust is used very frequently but rarely do businesses or we as individuals stop to think what it means. According to Wikipedia trust is a relationship of reliance. A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill policies, ethical codes, law and previous promises.
If a business decides it wants to be trustworthy, each and every way it interacts with customers should have an intentional purpose and desired outcome and all should exceed the expectations of the customer. The customer should also feel that this level of service can be repeated. If this occurs, the customer will want to tell friends, colleagues and family about the experience since they are assured that they too will receive this high level of service. As this happens and spreads the company will be building a trustworthy reputation.
Why Does Trust Matter?
Trust is what lets the less powerful interact and do business with the more powerful. Even if you stop paying a large corporation they can still hurt you more than you can hurt them. For instance, a large corporation will not be too affected by the loss in revenue but their collectors or hired collectors can come calling and really harm you. So the more a business can be trusted the easier it will be to attract and retain customers.
Trust also lets us feel more secure about the future because we know bad things are possible; rate hikes, bad service, but if we trust we believe these risks will go down. We do not expect someone we trust to harm or hurt us.
Many languages Dutch or German) do not distinguish between the words trust and confidence. In other words, when we trust a company we have confidence in a business to not harm us and be there for us.
It is my hope that more businesses will seek to consciously build trust with their customers and watch out for us little guys.