When businesses consider increasing profitability, they often focus on ways to enhance their revenue or reduce costs. When strategizing factors that impact success, they examine areas such as product innovation, cost innovation, excellent marketing, great branding, effective advertising, and strong customer retention plans, among others. However, they miss out on the critical factor of trust.
Trust in business is increasingly becoming very important. With the development of the digital economy and the inevitable need for businesses to adapt to using digital channels for transactions, businesses need to be very intentional about not just having an incredible product or effective marketing but also building and retaining trust.
Business is all about relationships. People do business with people, not numbers, so it is all about relationships with individuals, customers, suppliers, or employees. Trust is a necessary component of positive relationships, making building and maintaining trust crucial for business success.
The issue of trust becomes more important in a low-trust society, like Nigeria, with its high corruption and fraudulent activities. According to Transparency International, Nigeria ranked 145 out of 180 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index in 2023. While businesses are not expected to solve societal issues like a lack of public trust, they must be aware of their existence and make provisions to increase trust reposed in them.
Trust and Its Components
Trust is not an easily defined concept. It is multi-dimensional. It includes dimensions like competence; the belief that an organization has the ability to do what it says it would do, integrity; the belief that an organization is fair and just; dependability; the belief that an organization will do what it says it will, and act consistently, openness and honesty; the amount and accuracy of information shared and how sincerely it is communicated, etc.
Different Trust Stakeholders
When considering trust, a business must consider the important stakeholders with whom trust must be built. These include:
- Customers
- Employees
- Suppliers
- The general public
- Investors
Different businesses are in different stages of their business cycle, and the most critical stakeholders in terms of trust-building depend on the current stage.
For businesses in the early stages focusing on growth, such as startups or small businesses, customers are king, and their trust is critical for sustained revenue growth.
For a mature, operations-based business, such as a medium enterprise, the focus of building trust is more on the side of the employees and supply chain partners.
An investment-oriented business would focus more on the trust of its investors.
Although businesses need to build trust with all relevant stakeholders, deciding which stakeholder is most important at a given time is instructive.
How to Build and Sustain Trust
There are different ways to develop trust. While some allow for trust to be built faster, others make for a higher level of trust.
Openness, honesty, and transparency
How honest and open are you with your customers? Secrecy or non-disclosure about things like the price of a product could suggest shadiness. Do your products have side effects? Inform your customers. Don’t oversell a product or service. Don’t make guarantees that you cannot deliver. Also, do you carry your employees along when decisions are made, or are they the last to hear about developments that affect them?
Deliver on your brand promises.
Take branding seriously. An essential aspect of branding is the building of trust. Create a consistent brand across all platforms. Both organic and inorganic marketing should reflect the brand’s core values. When products and services live up to the brand promise, companies create better customer experiences and improve their reputational value and trust. Companies that cannot deliver on the brand promise will lose customer trust. According to an Accenture Strategy study of 25,000 global consumers, 46 percent of customers who switched companies in the past year did so because they lost trust in the company.
Maintaining a professional appearance.
Whether your business operates out of a physical store, online store, or via a website, customers are reassured when the design and atmosphere convey professionalism.
Third-party expert opinions, such as certification marks.
If you operate in an industry that requires certification marks, strive to get them. NAFDAC approval, SON certification, etc.
Product reviews and ratings.
Create a customer feedback system and work on getting customer endorsements.
Legal and regulatory compliance.
This is one of the best ways of creating a high level of trust. Does your business have legal backing? Are you registered with the CAC? Do you operate with the necessary regulatory license? Are you aware of the regulations that guide the industry you are operating in? Do you comply with the laws regulating your business?
Proficiencies
This represents the capabilities of an organization to deliver expected value reliably. This includes people (knowledge and competencies), attracting the best talents, and adopting best practices in business processes, including information technology, product or service features, controls, security, etc.
Adoption of risk transference mechanisms.
These protect customers or suppliers in case of a breach or deficiency in trust. Risk transference mechanisms and instruments, such as agreements, contracts, warranties, guarantees, and insurance, attempt to reduce the potential risk on the third party and help establish trust. A refund and return policy and providing warranties or guarantees help reduce uncertainty or lack of trust in transactions, especially online transactions.
Communication
Effective communication skills are essential in business and critical for building trust. Is there going to be a slight delay in delivering goods? Inform the customers beforehand. Want to make a slight variation in a customer’s order, like a color change? Inform them. Won’t be able to deliver a service as of the date earlier promised? Ask for an extension. Instead of ghosting customers and suppliers, communicate! Communication helps alleviate fears and renew trust.
Proper documentation
If you are looking to attract external funding or grants, keeping proper and accurate transaction records helps establish trust.
Build a personal brand.
This helps in linking the business to a person, which helps in allaying fears and building trust. Also, provide timely and even real-time coverage of your business. This could be done via social media, press releases, live stream videos, or a frequently updated blog.
How Do I Measure Trust
The best way to measure trust is to monitor behavior. When people trust, they are more willing to make themselves vulnerable.
Ask some important questions:
- How is the brand perceived in the marketplace by its competitors and customers?
- Do customers continue to buy from the business, or are the relationships short-term and purely transactional?
- What is the customer retention rate?
- Do employees trust one another and go out of their way to collaborate and help one another strive towards achieving common goals?
- Do they take on responsibilities outside of their job descriptions or stay in their lane doing the bare minimum?
- Do employees trust that senior management has their best interests in mind?
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