We all have friends and family that we love. When they tell us something, we take their word for it. We trust them. Trust is important in all relationships, not just romantic ones. Trust is important in friendships, and it’s also crucial in business relationships. Ask yourself why you bought that specific brand for your cellphone. Why did you buy that brand of a television? You trust that brand. You trust it because you either did research on them, or it was recommended to you by a trusted friend or family member.
As an experiment, go through your home and look at the brand for your electronics, appliances etc. Look at all the stuff that you bought. What led you to buy it? Maybe you’ve used the brand before. When you first had an experience with that brand, what made you buy it? I guarantee you that somebody recommended it, or you did a lot of research on it. Whatever the deciding factor was has now developed into trust. You now trust Sony, Samsung, Apple, etc. These are all big brands that you know and buy from regularly now.
If a friend or family member tells you that they’re looking to get a new TV, then what brand are you going to recommend to them? You’ll probably say something to the effect of, “I love this Samsung that I have right now.” or “My Sony TV has an incredible picture.” Whatever brand they say is now the first one that you’re going to look into. It’s only natural.
Now, you’re on the other side. You’re trying to gain a customer’s trust. The only way that is going to happen is if a customer has an in depth conversation with you, or a good employee, and they like you. Generally, the customer will probably have some type of idea in their head already before they even speak to you. They’re most likely coming to you because of a recommendation, either by family/friends, or by doing research from people who have tried your product.
Quite honestly, what you say has probably little meaning to a customer. They have more than likely already made up their mind before coming to you. They trust random reviewers more than they trust you because the Internet knows everything! This is why it’s extremely important to have testimonials from your customers. Their reviews will weigh more too potential customers than anything you can say because they don’t trust you, not yet anyway. Time will build that trust. It won’t hurt to have a good product too. Once they try your product they should feel that they need it. The customers will see that you are indeed telling the truth when you are raving about all these things that your product does. You’ve just built trust.
According to Gartner, there has been steady growth among all the enterprise software. You can also view the charts on Forbes. However, one major notable piece of software is the CRM. Growth is expected to sky-rocket by 2017 compared to the numbers now. CRM software is expected to hit 36.5 billion worldwide by 2017. Considering the growth of all the technology, it shows that customers trust the company that they’re doing business with. Customers trust the product that was made for them. More importantly, they trust you. On the flip side, businesses are realizing that continuing long term relationships with customers will contribute to steady growth. Businesses will get referrals, and it will have a snowball effect on the outcome. That is how powerful word of mouth can be. Trust really is a valuable currency.
