In a couple of our blogs from last week, we wrote about MeloTel’s Quality of Service Guarantee and our dedication to making sure that our customers are always satisfied. As far as we are concerned, a company that does not put its customers first isn’t much of a company at all. Just saying. At the end of the day, we know that it is of paramount importance to secure the trust of our clients.
So how does a company make itself trustworthy? Well, we believe that it begins with the obvious. Stand behind what it is you say you are going to do. We all have that friend who “says” he or she is going to return your favourite CD if you allow him or her to borrow it. How many times do we get our CDs back? And if we do, are they in the same condition they were in when they were lent out?
You get the point. If it’s tough to trust your friends, how can it be any easier to trust a business? At MeloTel, we take to our clients the same way we would take to our friends. We will do what we say we will do. But attaining trust isn’t that easy. You may not realize that there is a lot more to it than just owning up to promises.
On TrustedAdvisor.com, Charles H. Green writes that “trustworthiness is built from habitually behaving in accordance with a set of commonly shared beliefs about how to do business.” He reveals that there are four trust principles that business owners should consider when working towards building a trustworthy business.
#1. Focus On The Other. This means putting your clients and customers first. Green also notes that this concept should be practiced in a much more widespread fashion as well. In other words, consider your co-workers, partners and affiliates when making your business decisions. How will they be impacted? How will your decisions benefit them?
When you focus on the other, says Green, you should truly take into account their sense of satisfaction and not just your own. Being “client-focused” or “customer-centric” means that you have a genuine interest in those that are helping your business to be successful. When they win, so do you. So don’t leave them out at any time.
#2. A Collaborative Approach To Relationships. Green insists that business owners should have a strong willingness to work together with others. A successful way to reach a goal is to have joint goals and joint approaches on how to achieve them. This will communicate that your business is willing to help others while helping itself. The more the merrier, right? We will round out Green’s four trust principles in our next blog.