Recently, I was having a discussion with friends about the general issue of trust (not too deep!) you know when someone lets you down in some way and you question whether you really knew them at all?
Well, the conversation turned to the question of trust in business relationships and how much we take for granted. Trust relationships are vital to the conduct of business and trust plays a major role.
The level of trust in business relationships can be a great determinant of success. It is the one truly sustainable competitive advantage in business, yet can sometimes be overlooked or ignored.
So, can we improve on trust relationships and in particular on our levels of trustworthiness?
Trust can be used to describe certain behaviours. It can be used to describe whether or not we feel comfortable sharing certain information with someone else. And we use the same word to indicate whether or not we feel other people have our interests at heart as opposed to their own interests.
Other values are tied into the issue of trust. We consider whether the person/company that we are dealing with is credible and reliable. People don’t ordinarily trust institutions and organisations, they trust other people. Trust typically gets created at an individual level, between people, and usually in conversations. It’s important to engage your client about issues that are key to them: Listen to what is important and real to them, focus on them not just as a means to your own end. Have a collaborative approach to relationships.
You can win trust by being transparent so get into a habit of being transparent in all your dealings. Being true and honest is a behaviour that people can check out for themselves. It also increases credibility because you are less likely to conceal things. If you make a mistake, admit it and people will still trust you. Cover it up and you’ll destroy any chance of people trusting you.
Even though some people trust by default, ultimately, transparency is needed for trust to endure. By telling the truth and giving people the means to know for themselves, you can build the foundation for a strong relationship.
Being or becoming trustworthy can’t necessarily be learnt. Our actions are driven by our beliefs, which in turn are driven by our values or principles. If your values don’t drive you to behave in a trustworthy manner all the time, you’ll be exposed very quickly and losing trust is incredibly easy, just let someone down once and years of trust are gone forever.
So, trust can be hard to gain and easy to lose.
Here at Happy Creative we try and apply the principle that actions always speak louder than words (a saying my Grandmother used on many an occasion!).
We value highly the trust that clients place in us to be honest, credible, reliable and to deliver what we say we will. Importantly, we trust each other too. You can’t be more transparent than that!
Debbie Lewis is a Customer Support Executive at Happy Creative, a full service marketing and creative agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
