When it comes to creating brand loyalty, I believe TRUST is top.
In the simplest (real life) terms:
I don’t trust Hermes* to return my product to Amazon, but I do trust Amazon to refund me anyway.
Therefore, I comfortably buy from Amazon, but I wouldn’t choose to send anything via Hermes.
Trust is key
Building trust is tough.
Add to that, once you’ve created trust, you must fight to keep it.
That means not letting your customer down.
Gosh, it’s getting harder!
But if you must disappoint your customer you can still keep loyalty if you’ve made enough deposits in their emotional bank account.
Do this and they’re likely to forgive you.
But you must avoid going overdrawn so rebuild and quick.
Do your customers (internal and external) trust you?
Do you trust me?
Who do you put your trust in? I’d love to know.
I’ll send a copy of my book best-selling customer service book 5 Star Service to the person who leaves my favourite comment.
You can leave yours here.
Be Brilliant!
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I trust those in whom I’ve invested time and they come up trumps. For example, someone who might want to buy a painting. But not now. When the right one comes along or when they can afford it. I invest my time and expertise to facilitate their decision. They make their decision- and it may be months down the line. But they do it. It is very probable they’ll buy again. I trust those who do what they say they’ll do when they say they’ll do it without excuses. Or if they can’t they explain why and don’t leave me hanging…
It seems your post on trust is very timely as it describes exactly what is happening in politics at the moment, as the government, and the PM in particular, have bit by bit destroyed credit in their “trust bank” with every new revelation. Luckily for them they started from a high level but as they now create a deepening trust deficit it is much more difficult to build credit back up without significant change or “rebranding”. Once you pass into a deficit situation then it is much harder to get back to a baseline.
It seems that recently, I’ve begun to trust myself. To trust that I know who I can and cannot have some faith in! Trust is earned over a period of time, like respect it cannot be bought. I have faith that everyone I deal with has the same values as me.
I’m suspicious of people who don’t like dogs, but I trust a dog when it doesn’t like a person.
Yes, it is very hard to maintain high levels of trust especially when systems have been created in a vacuum and are not yet fit for purpose. I’m currently having to work night and day to build the confidence of my international customers at my bank and invest a lot of personal capital to attract customers whilst waiting for systems to catch up. I just hope they’ll speed up and I won’t end up with egg on my face and zero credibility!?
Do I trust you Michael? You bet I do!
Breaking someone’s trust is like crumpling a a perfect piece of paper. You can smooth it out but it’s never going to be the same.
I put my trust in my partner as he always has a kind word or supportive comment to make whatever the weather. He was made unemployed before the pandemic leading to financial strain, fast forward to today and he has started his own business which through the encouragement we had for each other is slowly building into a job he loves doing. Trust me when I say he works too hard XD
My trust is in my local village shop. They will go out of their way for customers. During lockdown they delivered to vulnerable people
Well obviously I trust you Michael. It’s interesting because Duncan (my husband) and myself have been talking to web designers for our new business. They are all local we could walk to their offices (admittedly one would be a long walk) but we decided to go local to see if we could find, in your words, one of us. I mean the big brands like Amazon you take the rough with smooth but when you want something as personal as a website, or accountancy or legal advisor you want to have a relationship, you build trust because they get you. We have a bank manager who emails once a year to ask if we want a chat. She is our third bank manager in 4 years and is based in a centralised call centre.We used to have a bank manager who we met and discussed things, she would ask about our family and we would ask about hers. She got us and we trusted her. Now I trust the bank we have been with them for years but the manager? Nah! I don’t know her from Adam. Duncan is a surveyor and he is the business. People trust him, he is well known for being honest, reliable and getting the job done. He does this by talking to people, either by phone, zoom or in person. If something goes wrong he keeps the client informed and does his best to fix it. That’s how you win trust by not just talking the talk, but walking the walk.
Well obviously I trust you Michael. It’s interesting because Duncan (my husband) and myself have been talking to web designers for our new business. They are all local we could walk to their offices (admittedly one would be a long walk) but we decided to go local to see if we could find, in your words, one of us. I mean the big brands like Amazon you take the rough with smooth but when you want something as personal as a website, or accountancy or legal advisor you want to have a relationship, you build trust because they get you. We have a bank manager who emails once a year to ask if we want a chat. She is our third bank manager in 4 years and is based in a centralised call centre.We used to have a bank manager who we met and discussed things, she would ask about our family and we would ask about hers. She got us and we trusted her. Now I trust the bank we have been with them for years but the manager? Nah! I don’t know her from Adam. Duncan is a surveyor and he is the business. People trust him, he is well known for being honest, reliable and getting the job done. He does this by talking to people, either by phone, zoom or in person. If something goes wrong he keeps the client informed and does his best to fix it. That’s how you win trust by not just talking the talk, but walking the walk.
‘Likes’ are vanity, sales are sanity, trust is king.
The other thing I would add about trust comes from a quote from one of my favourite books on relationships by the late Tom Marshall,
“The other person will never reveal themselves to you unless they trust you. They will never trust you unless they know you. They will never know unless you reveal yourself to them.”
Written originally in the context of a 1:1 relationship but you can see how this can be applied to a business.
I trust you Mike.
When I was a young stationary salesman in the eighties i came up with a strategy to gain trust among school headmasters (a key target for our products) by establishing rapport with a Deputy director in the Ministry of Education responsible grants to schools.
I would meet him before going out on my calls to find out how much funding was available and for what purpose. Communication between the Ministry and the schools about these grants was often unreliable.
Armed with this information I would then go and share this information with the school heads who then applied for these grants to build art centrs, establish boreholes and gardens, ablution blocks etc.
I generated so much trust with the school heads other salesman would be brushed aside in anticipation of my arrival.
I developed a strong bond with the head masters. And my order book just kept swelling!
Trust is the glue that binds customers to their suppliers.
So sorry I haven’t been more “pro-active” lately Michael (& Christine) but normal health has been in conflict with my body for a while! Here, though, are a couple of (tongue in cheek) thoughts in defence of our experiences in LA11 Cumbria and, now, IP6 Suffolk and our stupendous Hermes deliverers & “picker-up-ers”… they’ve been lovely for us for years (I touch, very quickly, wood!!!).
Please set your face, with gracious anticipation, to your infectious smile before you read further… this is genuinely aimed to help “cheer” your day!!
As Hermes is clearly named after a Greek God, I had to now investigate which one…
We’re told “in the Odyssey he appears mainly as the messenger of the Gods and the conductor of the dead to Hades”… he will have presumably dragged or sent them to hell or purgatory…. sound familiar & good so far??.
Hermes was, apparently, also a dream God, and the Greeks offered to him the “last libation before sleep”….. sweet dreams or nightmares we ask!!??
As a messenger, he “may also have become the God of roads and doorways, and he might have been the protector of travellers”… perhaps, ironically in modern times, steering some of them off the road with their notorious blue vans that sometimes now recklessly compete with the status earned over many years by the “man in the white van”… “White Van Man”!!??
A further online source (not Wikipedia… but undoubtedly duplicated there) says that The Greek God Hermes (the Roman God was Mercury) was the God of translators and interpreters (a definition you’d similarly like to query with the lack of communication many Hermes customers experience!!!???)
He was, reportedly, “the most clever of the Olympian Gods, and served as messenger for all the other Gods”. WOW!!! He “ruled over wealth, good fortune, commerce, fertility, and thievery”…. and I imagine, comparing with this modern day enterprise sharing his name, you might question some of those qualities being present or completely accurate!!!
Despite our own very good experiences that demonstrate that trust can be present or even built up depending on completely random areas (LA11 & 6HW) and Hermes available choice of employees, we’re very aware that, “synonymous with damaged, lost and stolen parcels”, Hermes might hold some sort of record??!!
I’m reminded though, that one of your own guiding lights for industry & domestic situations is to say (hope you’re now beaming with delight) “Thank You” and to praise the little things, and especially if carried out by “little” people who may not be recognised within the hierarchy of the company with whom they’re employed.
Consolidating my own thoughts I very often recall the enthusiasm of your valuable words and I do continue to make positive responses to the “How Was Your Delivery Today?” question (regardless of the company, of course) in my feedback.
It takes a teeny bit longer but I thank them for being on (or close to) time & if the package looked as if it were handled carefully etc I recognise that too….
I thank you for your stories that remind us that saying “Thank you” goes a long way…. the occasions you speak of are often poignant and humbling!
I also thank you, however, for pointing out that taking a stand can be necessary too.. even if it’s less pleasant & harder to do… there must always be room for improvement and, especially, learning. For those negative calls, emails or… ooooh… letters, aside from a few notes focussing on the BIG aim, I do tell myself to try to genuinely smile as prep… (even the tiniest smile over the tiniest outcome I’d like to achieve) before I make the call or commit pen to paper, fingers to keyboard. (I hope you are still smiling at this moment in the way that you do, with that twinkle in your eye.. ..right now as you read… you know these are not my original ideas… nor rocket science).
The Covid-19 pandemic has created massive changes for everyone & its impact on all of our lives has been so much relieved by some amazing and heroic delivery personnel (from near & afar, from a whole range of large delivery services… Fedex, Ups, Atlas, DPD, Royal mail and so on, as well as many small local independents and individuals…. and, of course, Hermes!!!). Some wonderful (keen & selfless) delivery “angels” have also emerged… and I think, pronounced in whatever way one wishes in these circumstances… “Uranus” was an opposite Greek God (of the sky) to Hermes… escorting people (and their packages/baggage) to heaven… hopefully arriving & intact… ????!
We’re thankful we actually do have an account with Hermes… but it’s our people we trust rather than the “company” they represent. They’ve been wonderful ambassadors. In your case it’s obvious you’ll have had some agonising situation/s with Hermes… with, likely, horrendous implications that have proved unacceptable and simply wrong, but I guarantee that you enjoy (as I bet you still carry out with huge warmth) saying “Thanks” to some amazing, thoughtful, caring & deserving delivery drivers…
You’re right that we also need to realise that sadly, in our flawed world, a few fall short… (personally or as the chosen representatives of a vital service where TRUST is paramount) & more than a few fall very, VERY short of expectations & promises!
Here’s “trusting” that Uranus shows up more frequently than Hermes…
BIG SMILE or chuckle is desirable now!!!! Love DEE xxx
Feel free to use this in any way if it there’s any chance it helps to improve something somewhere!!!
Michael, you have made me happy as soon as you touched on the the subject of trust. The word must surely be one of the most important words in a relationship, business and for animals. Once broken trust can take a long time to repair. In certain circumstances it is irreversible. A child will trust a parent, a business will trust your advise and an animal will trust it’s owner with the food they are given by them. The greater the trust you show to others the more respect you’ll receive back.
I trust in the young people who I support on a daily basis in my work. Young people are often overlooked, as adults speak for them and believe they know best. I trust bereaved young people to tell me what they need. I hope I respond in such a way that they receive what’s required to help them to feel supported. I even use the questions ‘Do you feel you were listened to?’ and ‘Do you trust the team?’ in the evaluation of services. I need the young people’s loyalty and trust – otherwise how can I help them?
Trust is so very important, in every walk of life.
You want to have faith that when someone tells you they are going to do something that it is done, no need to repeat the question and ask if it has been done. You have the faith in the person that they have carried out what was required of them.
I have found that even though some companies may be more expensive trust them and local to them because trust and loyalty are as you say Michael the most important thing.
I don’t want to be over thinking have they have they not life is far too short.
Loyalty and Trust is the name of the game.
Michael yes trust definitely trust you.
And -if you do let your customers down, even if it wasn’t YOUR mistake (eg Hermes or the post office) there is still a good opportunity to re-build trust above its previous level. A prompt, polite response, together with going the extra mile to resolve the situation (a small freeby, a discount or even refund plus getting the keep the tardy order…) can turn a negative into a positive. Customers will definitely remember it.