Yes, yes. This is a rhetorical question. Of course trust is important in business!
With widespread uncertainty and distrust in the economy today, it is even more important that your company remains trustworthy.
However, if you hope to appear trustworthy to everyone, it is important that you actually are trustworthy to everyone. This includes your customers, suppliers, employees…even your competitors.
If you still don’t believe me that being trustworthy is important, here are some benefits to ensuring that all of your business dealings revolve around trust.
You’ll have a solid brand reputation
Customers would rather do business with a trustworthy brand than an untrustworthy one. Why? Customers know they have a higher chance of satisfaction with a dependable brand. They also know there is less of a chance they will regret their purchase decision.
Establishing your company as trustworthy will attract customers to you,
help them feel more comfortable with making purchase decisions as well as referring you to others.
Customer loyalty will increase
Not only does trustworthiness attract new customers, it also encourages repeat buys. If the overall buying experience was good, customers will want to return to you.
Since a relationship is based on trust, establishing this dependability can foster long-lasting relationships with your customers, who will be more apt to make bigger purchases in the future.
Suppliers will help you through difficult times
Being trustworthy does not stop with your customers. You should build this relationship with ALL stakeholders of your business, including your employees and suppliers.
Building trust with your suppliers will make them more willing to work with you through difficult times. Suppliers will work harder to improve their service to you and will even give you more leeway if a payment is late.
Competitors will respect you
Being a respected competitor is very important. While you wouldn’t want your competitors taking badly about you, you shouldn’t talk badly about your competitors either.
There is a very important reason to garner respect from your competition: they may be future business partners. Thus, maintaining trust will ensure you don’t spoil the possibility of a future joint venture.
You will have a better workplace culture
Having a unique and appealing workplace culture will have little effect if there is no trust in your organization. It will feel phony and hollow and will not catch on for long.
The only way a unique and empowering culture will stick is if there is trust present in the work environment.
Management will be more trustworthy
You want all of your managers to fully espouse your culture, as well as the company vision, mission, values and goals. Most importantly, your managers must be the most trustworthy out of all your staff.
You wont have employees very long if they don’t feel they can trust their superiors. Even those employees you don’t lose will seriously lack motivation.
Having trustworthy managers will allow you to keep a consistent workplace culture, and allow your vision, mission values and goals to be embraced at all levels of the organization.
Improved staff rapport
Trust keeps the lines of communication open. This means that your staff will have an easier time talking to one another, thus fostering stronger relationships.
Should a conflict arise, an atmosphere of trust will make conflicts between staff members easier to resolve, since communication will be easier.
Greater creativity
If your staff has trust in one another, they will feel more comfortable sharing ideas without fear of credit being taken.
This not only fosters openness, but will allow a free-flowing exchange of ideas, increasing the likelihood of innovation. This also provides a climate for better teamwork among staff.
You’ll be a fiercer competitor
These days, trust is VERY rare in the marketplace.
Being the trustworthy competitor means your untrustworthy competition will have to work much harder to attract and retain customers.
Customers are desperate for a company they can trust. Being trustworthy will attract life-long relationships that your untrustworthy competitors just wont find.
Are there any other benefits to being trustworthy as a business? What are some of the costs?