What is an actionable but simple way a company can build the trust of their clients?

Transparency

Hi Branimir, what are some ways a company can transmit transparency? Can you elaborate? I’d be interested to learn more.

1) Good Technical
2) Communication Skill
3) Committed Delivery

Hi,

my first question back would be what the timeframe is that you would like to build that trust?

In my opinion you should do the following things long term (explained out of the view of a B2C Telco company):
1. Treat customers fair as a design choice - that means for example that when you update your Portfolio and add services to your portfolio like for example ReplayTV, that you should also give it to your existing customers. But that is just the value side. Also from a pricing side, make sure to treat customers fair - meaning they should never pay more than what a new customer would pay also as a design choice. If you haven’t had that focus in the past it may be that your legacy base is extremely skattered which would make this a multi year program or a huge hit on your P&L in year 1. However, speaking about competitive edges, if your competition doesn’t do this neither and you do, you would probably have 1-3 years of competitive advantage, maybe even a sustainable advantage if your competition is for example not willing to reduce it’s financial outlook for one year for the above mentioned transition phase
2. Transparency - Treating customers fair does not necessarily mean that you need to give them the best of the best. You can also treat customers fair as a no frills low cost, low service provider and treat customers fair if you be transparent and consistent in your business rules
3. Make your brand position one of the top KPIs to track. It should be on the same line like Revenue, ARPU, Volumes, Churn, Base Movements. In my personal view Brand should be leading for everything else in your customer experience and customer value propositions. Hence, define a brand position you would like to take and structure your entire company activities (including for example Agent trainings and other operational topics) to be aligned with that brand position.
4. Try to reduce churn as much as possible. Churn is a non-linear function and correlated in my view with the trust brand position. So if you focus on reducing churn, you will probably also automatically increase the trust brand values your customers have when it comes to you as a provider

If you are looking for more tactical short-term solutions:
1. Look at your customer base and see whether there is customers that don’t have the value they should have if they would join as new customers. Then increase their value to the portfolio specs. You may want to prioritize based on additional cost that would drive. 
2. If you increase prices of your existing customers ever now and then, consider skipping one time
3. Start a (relevant) loyalty program for your customers. There are some examples in Telco that did work and some that didn’t so relevancy is important for this to be successful

Hope this helps. Also happy to jump on a call to discuss.

Best regards,

Marc Andre Lein

Rainer: People mainly buy on emotion, and without trust the relationship won’t endure - it is transactional.  Trusted brands are brands perceived as having unmatched competencies - they are efficient, they deliver the promise, they’re transparent, acting on behalf of the customer and not their bottom line.
Trust takes time to build, and can be lost in a moment or an action.
Trust levers need to be sustainable across all brand aspects so, eventually,  embedded across the whole organisation - its culture and processes and so on - which takes time, effort and money.

The way to start can be simple, though.  Do the right thing.
It’s a mindset, a culture. 
1 - be transparent with customers - honesty and integrity are important trust emotions, and costs nothing. Don’t promise something you can’t deliver.
2 - own mistakes, acting on behalf of the customer, never using your internal processes and procedures or similar as reasons for not being able to do something.
Remember that there’s lots of evidence that the way you rectify a mistake (honestly, fairly, transparently, etc) can turn a complaining/unhappy customer into a loyal advocate.
(Notice that none of those are about speed and efficiency, which in my view are less important, and they take longer to build).
3 - allow customers to access you. Across all channels, if you can, but more importantly, be clear and upfront about how they can reach out to you in the channels you’re in.
4 - don’t overpromise what your product or service delivers.

Brand Reputation is by far not always on the top agenda of big and small organizations. This is most unfortunate as customers are consumers of not just consumer goods but also all other forms of services and products. Reputation management can save a good business from a bad experience and can brake a grate business. Recent examples are all around us .It has to be a bottom up focus from the person who picks up the phone to the
person who delivers the products .There is perhaps a internal value focus that is required.

Why are customers leaving ?
Why are they complaining?
What are they complaining about?
Who/What is responsible for the current state     ?
What is your ideal state           ?
Do you have the right skills       ?
Do we have the means to resolve it?
What have we learned ?
How do we avoid it from happening in the future?

The answers to these questions will and should influence your strategy and ultimately your response .

One customer once told me organizational cultures is the biggest enemy of growth ,change and improve organizational culture and your fix 90% of your problems.