The CEO of a startup firm once asked me, how do I build trust in the market ?
A new business takes time to build trust in
the market. And if the business is in industries like finance, real estate, and investments, it is an even more daunting task.
Then how does a business go about building
this trust?
The research on this topic took me to Edelman
Trust Barometer that says “Trust is built on Competence and Ethics” and
that no Institution is seen as both competent and ethical!
Their research shows that businesses are higher on competency than ethics.
- BUSINESS COMPETENCE
What this translates is that Businesses are
good at what they do, i.e. generate value for the owners, being an engine of
innovation, and drive economic prosperity.
- BUSINESS ETHICS
At the same time businesses are not very
good at being purpose-driven, honest, fair, and having a vision. They do seem to serve the interest of only a
few, rather than serve everyone equally and fairly.
And this is where the answer lies. How does
a business go about building trust?
As business owners, we are guilty of giving
an ongoing focus to building and demonstrating competency; while having a fragmented focus on building and demonstrating ethics. One obvious reason is
that it is easier to measure competency as compared to ethics. What other
reasons come to your mind?
Whatever the reasons, a business would
require to give equal focus on building both competency and ethics and then
demonstrating this to their audience. This would mean that a business needs
to focus on its ability to deliver in a dependable and purpose-driven manner
with integrity.
Another interesting point here is that Trust
is local. It starts with your employees, then your existing
customers before it percolates outward into the market. Hence a business
needs to work closer home to start building that trust.
A rising breed of buyers is the 'belief-driven
buyers'. These buyers believe in
“Brand Democracy”, meaning that brands can be a powerful force of change. A
change that represents the buyer's perspective and solves societal problems. Their
wallets are the votes that they give to Brands. As a business, we need to figure out - How to attract these
‘belief-driven buyers’ to choose us from the plethora of offerings they have?
Why would these buyers switch their votes to us? What can cause these buyers to
boycott us? The answers to these questions will help us build a business brand
that is trustworthy.
An interesting statistic is that -consumers
trust traditional media and search engines more than owned media and social
media. As business owners can we use this stat to generate content that is
newsworthy, searchable, and less social-centric? Again information from peers
and experts is most credible. Experts include- technical and academic expertise.
Obviously, building trust is not a
one-time action. It is an ongoing activity, the emphasis being on “
activity”. The easiest way to lose this trust is not to act on the promise that
you make to your audience.
It's time to be proactive about building trust. Can we plan a ”Business -Trust Goal” and dedicate time and effort to earning this Trust?
