My topic today is “What is Trust?” Now the most basic definition of trust is the firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of someone or something.
When we’re talking about businesses, in my opinion, it is about trustworthiness. Trustworthiness is 3 things: 1. Are you competent, 2. Are you honest, and 3. Are you reliable? Those are the things that people are looking for. They want to know that you can do the job– that you have the ability to do it. That you’re going to deal with them honestly. That you’re not trying to cheat or rip them off. You are going to do what you said you were going to do. You are going to be reliable in delivering your product or service.
I believe that trust is your most important asset. There is no asset that you have in your business that’s more important than that.
I want to talk about 3 areas of trust.
Your potential clients
Your current clients
Your Team
First of all, your potential clients. Why should your potential clients trust you over your competitors? That’s why online reviews are so important. It helps people to see why they should pick you versus their competitors and why we work so hard to try to help you get more online reviews.
Second your current clients. It is important to maintain the trust that you’ve already established with them. That’s how you deliver your product, deliver your service. Whatever that is, continuing to do that at a very high level and doing a good job, you are maintaining and keeping that trust with those clients. You know what happens when you do that? They refer more clients to you.
Thirdly, trust with your team, with your staff, your stakeholders, your employees. That’s hugely important, and that comes down to, as the leader of your organization, how do you deal with your team in maintaining and keeping that trust? Really hugely important in how they are delivering your product and your service to your customers. Those are 3 areas I wanted to mention to you today.
Finally, why do we have to ask for a recommendation from somebody else?
When I’m looking for a business, I might look online. I might look in an advertisement, and yet I’m not making a decision about that business. I may wind asking a third party person for a recommendation for somebody in that particular industry. For example, if I’m looking for a plumber, I can look online, I can listen to the ads, and I can respond to that. Yet sometimes I might go a step further and ask a few people I know if they have tried a plumber.
Sometimes it’s so hard to pick and decide on who should use because their website doesn’t really tell me why I should use them. Their online reviews might only be few and far between, so that’s not going to tell me the story either. Now I have to ask for a recommendation. If you really want to set yourself apart, keep working on reviews, so that you can build trust and provide that to your potential clients, your existing clients, as well as to your team.
If you have questions or anything you’d like me to talk about in these videos, please let me know.