5 Actionable Ways to Build Lasting Trust In Business Relationships
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- 5 Actionable Ways to Build Lasting Trust In Business Relationships
From the very outset of doing business, I had established “trust in business relationships”, without even knowing it was a “thing.”
My single mother who raised 4 of us with an iron fist (albeit hidden in a glove) would have expected no less.
In over 30 years of doing business, I have a flawless record of never being late regardless of the country or the circumstances. I missed only one training session and that was because the client had changed the date and forgot.
My trust in business relationships also extends to my delivery of content. It does not matter whether I am being paid by a “deep pockets” client or donating my services to a small country church, I deliver the same high-quality content.
In addition, I keep confidences and I am willing to tell my clients what they do not want to hear but what they must hear, if they are going to get the breakthroughs they want.
The results? I am paid 25% above market price, I can choose my clients and they willingly wait until I’m available instead of going to another consultant…
I share the above not to boast, but to underscore that it is an undeniable fact that trust in business relationships matters. After all, people do business with people they know, like and trust.
And in many areas of business, trust is taken for granted.
When you go to the supermarket you expect it to have what you want and that the vegetables will be fresh. You expect that Amazon will deliver your package where you tell them to and in good condition as well.
However, there are some areas of business where trust must be earned, for example, customer service. And when you’re a solopreneur or you operate a small business, it’s absolutely necessary to establish trust that cannot be negotiated.
The nature of trust in business relationships
But what is trust as it relates to doing business?
For me, it’s when you build and conduct your business on principles and values which are customer-centric and show you’re reliable and trustworthy.
Trust is built on:
- Competence along with benevolence and integrity – Competence – can you do the job? Benevolence – do you have the client’s interest in mind or just yours? Integrity – do you consistently operate on principles which are recognised and respected?
- Caring – This means actively demonstrating that you recognise the other party as human, value their long-term success, safety, and well-being, rather than treating them as just another money-making transaction.
- Transparent Communication – How you communicate bad news matters more than how you communicate good news. Highlighting a problem early, even when it’s costly to admit, builds more trust than a track record of good news followed by one hidden failure.
- Courtesy – Displaying good manners and gracious behaviour,consistently showing respect, professionalism, and consideration through your manners and actions. It builds trust in business relationships by proving you value the other party’s time, dignity, and boundaries.
- Consistency over time – Building trust through accumulated, repeated small instances of doing what you said you’d do and keeping your promises over a prolonged period of time.
- Core values – The high ethical standards that underpins a company’s or individual’s decisions. They act as the ultimate foundation for trust in business relationships because shared values prove that both parties are pulling in the same direction.
How trust gets broken:
If you understand how trust is built, it’s easy to recognise how it gets broken.
A violation in any form, of the above pillars on which trust is built, can destroy trust in business relationships faster than a flash of lightning.
You see, trust is slow to build and fast to destroy, as research shows.
To make matters worse, to rebuild trust after a violation, you have to put in more consistent good behaviour than you did to establish the trust in the first place.
And for some types of violations, it never return to the original level.
Why you need trust in your business
You don’t have to look very far to find instances of businesses and brands behaving in ways which undermine the important relationships they had built up over time with their customers and the public.
There’s the story of the delivery man eating the toppings off a pizza before delivering it to a customer. He’s since been fired but I’m sure we’ll all be forever skeptical about ordering pizza to be delivered.
This article share 11 examples of when well-known brands lost the trust of the public.
It’s safe to say, then, that when trust is present in your business, you experience:
- Customer loyalty and they may easily become your evangelists
- Wonderful relationships with your suppliers and other stakeholders
- Low staff turnover because there is mutual trust between you and your employees and they are fully engaged.
- How easy it is for you to attract investment
- Growth in professional reputation when you’re known as a trustworthy person to do business with.
- Reduced transaction costs because when you trust a partner, you spend less time and money on contracts, verification, monitoring, and legal safeguards.
- Speed in negotiating since deals move faster when parties don’t need exhaustive due diligence at every step.
- Ease of information sharing because people and companies share more honest, useful information with parties they trust.
- Resilience over the long term given that relationships built on trust survive rough patches such as a missed deadline, a pricing dispute or a mistake.
- Accumulation over repeat business given that trust earned in one interaction makes it easier to apply it in the next one.
Who wouldn’t want to enjoy these benefits in their business?
But time and time again, I watch in horror as small businesses unwittingly undermine their chances of great success, by proving to be untrustworthy in their business dealings.
Or even worse, they sometimes destroy the trust in their existing business relationships by some small act of dishonesty, believing it wouldn’t matter.
So, how can we put an end to that behaviour right now? You can begin with…
5 ways to build lasting trust in business transactions
As trust in business relationships goes, it is something you can build deliberately instead of sitting around and hoping it will descend on you from heaven.
So here are 5 things you can use to lay the foundation on which to build an entire empire, if you like, of lasting trust in business relationships.
1. Put trust-building on your business agenda
Yeah…how about that? I know it doesn’t seem like something you should HAVE to do but it is a solid cornerstone for your trust foundation. In his book The Speed of Trust, Stephen M.R. Covey, son of the famous Stephen R. Covey, describes it as“the one thing that changes everything”.
Start by examining the way you do business. Don’t be afraid or ashamed to admit if your level of trustworthiness is not where you or your customers would want it to be.
You can use the following tips as small baby steps to to begin to build up your trust levels right away.
- Say what you’ll do, then do it — visibly. Don’t just meet commitments; make the commitments explicit up front. For example “I’ll have this to you by Thursday 3 p.m.” In this way, meeting your commitment starts with it being visible.
- Add flexibility in promised deadlines. What this means is if you know you can finish a project in 3 days, add an extra day to your promised delivery date. When you consistently deliver on-time or early, this establishes a pattern of trust which compounds over time.
- Share bad news early, unprompted. If a deadline is slipping or is going to be missed, warn the affected party before they find out on their own. The earlier you share, the more it is interpreted as integrity rather than damage control.
2. Behave in a trustworthy manner consistently
Generally, trust in business relationships is not something you can turn off and on when you feel like. Neither can you dispense it to those you like and withhold it from those you don’t.
Either you can be trusted or you can’t. Either your business is built on it or it isn’t!
The thing about trust is that it shouldn’t start when you begin doing business.
It should be and intrinsic part of who you are: What are your values? Do you have integrity? Do you have a personal code of honor? trust should just be a normal way of life for you.
Behaving in a trustworthy manner is especially beneficial when there is no financial reward available. For example:
- Making an introduction with no immediate payoff. Connecting two people in your network because it’s a good match, without angling for a favor or fee in return.
- Staying available during a crisis that isn’t yours to fix. Being reachable and helpful when a partner or client is in the middle of their own emergency – even if your part of the work is done.
- Doing unpaid work to make a client successful. A designer who spends an extra hour making a free revision beyond scope, or a consultant who sends a relevant article or contact with no intention of billing or expectation of being paid. Trust me, this is so cool because it makes you feel good too.
3. When you mess up, own up and speak up
Translated: mistakes will happen, when they do, you own them fully and fix them quickly. Don’t try to blame others after the fact. You learn from them and you share them publicly, so others can learn from them too.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, annoys me more than a service provider who delivers a service which does not even meet minimum standards. Then they say or do nothing about it, as though it’s an entitlement that came with the incorporation documents.
You just have to communicate with your customers in good times and even more so when things go wrong. That’s the fundamental difference between a “mover and a shaker” and a huffer and a puffer”!
How best to speak up when you mess up? check out #4 below…
4. Leverage the power of the apology
Nothing builds trust like an apology done well. I really want to give you an example of this.
Recently, I went to a farewell function for a member of an organisation of which I am a past member.
It was scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. and finish at t 9:30 p.m and we were also required to contribute a sum of money for food. By 9:19 p.m. when I left, the food had not arrived.
Chances are the caterer apologized to those who were still there when the food arrived. But real trust would have been established if she had called those of us who left without food and apologise as well.
And then it would have gone right through the roof if she had apologized at the next business meeting of the organisation where it would have been formally recorded. But her attitude was defensive and her silence was deafening there as well.
Contrast that with my Coconut Water Vendor. He had promised me to have a half gallon of coconut water ready for me by a certain time but when I got there, it wasn’t ready.
He apologised, asked if I could wait and then went the extra step of offering me a smaller bottle of cold coconut water to drink while I waited.
Do you wonder why people drive for miles to patronize his business?
5. Go the extra mile
Of course you’re required to give the customer or client what they pay for. But the fastest way to build lasting trust in business relais to surprise and delight them as well.
Give them more – more service, more of your time, more convenience and deliver these in a caring and sensitive way. When you do, not only do you go the extra mile, you also create a “WOW! Experience” that they would want to tell the world about.
Here are my favourite examples of going the extra mile:
- Fixing a problem you didn’t cause. A client’s project is delayed because of something on their end. You still help them work around it, even though it’s not your fault. This builds trust precisely because you weren’t obliged to.
- Referring business to a competitor when you’re not the right fit. Telling a prospect another company will work out better for them costs you the deal but earns something more durable — a reputation for honesty that often brings that person back later, or see them sending others your way.
- Showing up for the non-business moment. Attending a client’s product launch, sending a thoughtful note when they’ve had a loss or a big win, remembering details about their business that have nothing to do with your contract. It shows the relationship isn’t purely transactional.
- Correcting an error that benefited you. Noticing you were overpaid or that you made a mistake that resulted in them being overcharged and pointing it out. This builds trust, and respect, in unimaginable ways.
Your next “business trust” step…
By now you understand that trust can be a tangible business asset…especially if your business is small.
I agree that developing and using it requires you to have high personal and professional standards and to be completely customer-centric, but it is sooo worth it!
So, why not start right here?
Choose any of the 5 tips I’ve given you and try it for 30 days and when you’re finished, choose another one and repeat…
Before you know it, you will be doing business on a solid foundation of trust, you will be happy to be in business and the evidence will be in your bank account.
Lorna Barrow
Lorna Barrow excels at leading small business owners to get the breakthrough they are looking for in their businesses! She unleashes her 25+ years of small business experience and knowledge on your business, which was developed from working with small business across the Caribbean and beyond. This ensures you get the solutions that are right for you and your business...
