Gaining and Keeping Trust

If you own or operate a business, chances are you are working with clients on some level. It is very important that you develop long lasting relationships of trust and honesty with people so that you can retain their business and their loyalty.

There are a number of reasons why this is key in business. It applies to more than just clients though. It also applies to the people for whom and with whom you are working.

If your employees see you telling the truth, even when it is not easy or comfortable to do so, then you will build an incredible bond of trust with them. With that bond of trust will come more cooperation and motivation, which is exactly what the head of any company wants.

The lesson is clear. If you want your customers to remain loyal, you must earn and keep their trust. If you want a stronger team at work, you have to build a foundation of trust. This will quickly become your competitive advantage when it comes to business.

To begin, you must assume the best when it comes to the people with whom you are working. When something goes wrong, or when the other person disappoints you, start by assuming the best. Honor the other person you are dealing with. Keep your temper in check and try to figure out what can be done to fix the problem. Keep that crucial focus set on the future, and maintain the relationship that you need to. If you lose your temper and start the blame game, you may end up very embarrassed by your behavior once the situation calms down. After all, sometimes the situations we try to blame on others end up being rooted in our own mistakes.

When your customers are right, make sure that you stick up for them every chance you get. This is one key way to build trust–let them know that they are important enough to stand up for, even when it is not necessarily popular.

Next, do your best not to gossip. There is something very alluring, and maybe even a little satisfying, about sharing a negative tidbit. It may make you feel a bit superior, but you have to fight the urge to add to the passing of information behind people's backs. There are a few simple reasons for this. Negative gossip almost always gets back to the person you are discussing. That is just the nature of juicy, negative, sensationalized news. Just to make matters worse, the version that gets back to the person you discussed is usually worse than the version you shared.

Next, you need to learn to keep all of your business promises and claims. Nothing destroys trust faster than failing to keep your promises.
You tell a colleague that you will get back to him, and he sees it as a promise. It is completely up to you to follow through.

Do not get discouraged, if building that foundation with the people you work with takes time. Successful relationships are not established in one day-they are created subtly over time. Just as it takes more than one block to build a fortress, it takes more than one action to build trust. It takes a lot of blocks to get the results you want.

If you work to develop this key quality, you can become a better leader and manager, you can retain your employees, and you can keep your customers who want to buy from you over and over again for life.

Source: Ronald Pedactor is a veteran in the field of online marketing and has authored hundreds of articles relating to online marketing and search engine optimization. Photo: stock.xchng