Behave your way to High-Trust relationships
May 23, 2012 by Vanessa Davey
Filed under All blog posts, Business Articles
People do business with people. More specifically, people do business with people they trust.
Trust is at the heart of every business and personal relationship, and yet few of us give much thought to how important our behaviour is in enhancing, or damaging, the level of trust people have in us.
Unlike monetary dollars and cents, trust does not have a fixed value. It is entirely subjective. Context significantly influences how we are perceived. The level at which I consider someone to be trustworthy may be far lower or greater than another person. So in order for trust to have some meaningful value it must be capable of being measured. The question is, against whose standards is it being measured?
It is therefore vital that we understand what is important to our customers, and those we wish to develop high-trust relationships with, so we can demonstrate our trustworthiness in the areas important to them.
Fortunately, behaving in a way that builds trust is relatively straightforward:
- Truthful
- Respectful
- Understanding
- Serving
- Thankful
These behaviours build trust and generates goodwill. Rather than ‘pushing’ yourself or your products and services, it helps ‘pull’ people to you who want to do business with you. It encourages buying, in addition to a traditional focus
on selling.
If you want to make people feel good about dealing with you, build trust and have people recommend you more often, remember the trust-building behaviours mnemonic and always focus on what’s best for them.
© 2009 Hannah Samuel, All rights reserved. The Reputation Champion
Want to know more? Download Hannah’s free report: ‘Reputation Branding Essentials’ and opt-in to receive her electronic newsletter, ‘Reputationz’, at: www.hannahsamuel.com.
Hannah is a specialist reputation advisor, author and professional speaker, and founder of online performance-based service directory, TRUSTcite. She regularly comments on issues around reputation, trust and integrity in mainstream media and on her blog www.trustbite.co.nz.
