Trust as the foundation for interaction (part 1)

Posted on November 28, 2018

Interaction takes place everywhere. We interact with our customers through marketing, client services, products & services and more. What do you think is the most important common ground you should focus on? Is it the common message, the strategy, the right placement (time, place, person) or… ?

Have you ever noticed that you are doing something really great but the success is not this you expected?
Do you feel that there is something in the background you can not grab?

We can tell that we are great, that our products & services are great… but do people trust us because we tell it? What do we need to do to get the trust to be successful?

Goal of Trust

Within business we want to connect with clients and customers, connect in way which is based on values. One value is trust which is the foundation for a great experience, an experience containing the elements premium, connected and personalized.

Premium is about showing respect and inspiring love for the brand and desire for the products.
Connected is about taking all touch points (online & offline) and interact in a consistent way.
Personalized is about respecting the interactions we have had together across any touch point and bring in which is relevant based on the actual context and the individual profile.

Trust will be build through different elements. Which ones we see now.

Elements of Trust

Trust is based on these three pillars. Sounds easy, but all of them can crumble or just be not that strong as it is needed. Let’s have a look at the two main things in each we need to pay attention on.

Logic

Quality of logic. Arguments must be stringent which they are often not enough.
Communication of logic.

Authenticity

To much attention on what people think about us. This is not conducive and makes that we are not ourselves and interchangeable.
Room for being authentic. Authenticity must be save and welcome.

Empathy

Typically people do not to believe that we are mostly in it for them. They believe that we are to self-orientated.
We all have much to do, high targets and many things to think about…. we have less time for empathy.

We talk about customer experience, but first of all we need to be a trusted person, a trusted company. Have you every measured your (customer) interaction on authenticity, logical and empathy?

I’m sure you say “for sure our customers trust us”. If you answer this you think maybe on an overall level, but what is about a very detailed level? Think of this 6 topics, integrate them in everything everyday and prove them at the end of each day. Improve them in direction of customers, colleagues and…. friends.

Personally authenticity is most important for me within trust. Authenticity is when thinking, speaking and acting is in-line.

Added: Just got a hint on vulnerability. Think about someone who is vulnerable and someone who is invulnerable… what impact does this have for you in direction of trusting this person?

But let’s focus on the three main topics, let’s have a look what logic, authenticity and empathy means in a different context in part 2 – 4 (links down).

This was the first part of a series of four. Have you seen the other once?