You pride yourself on providing honest, reliable and trustworthy products or services to your clients, colleagues and community. But did you know that you can either build or erode trust through your day-to-day communications?
In our digital age, very often a person’s first impression of you is formed online. They might first ‘meet’ you on your website after Google searching your product or services, or reading your LinkedIn profile after a referral from an existing client. The might see an ad in the newspaper, or see you quoted in an article on your area of expertise.
How you communicate is one of the building blocks of trust – it can demonstrate expertise, truth and transparency.
Building Trust Through Your Website:
- Start with the “About Us” page. People want to know about you and your business before they connect directly. Include your background, the services you offer, and how they can help your target audience. Humanize your business by introducing your team and including photos.
- Clean up your “Contact Us” page. Include links to your social media accounts so people can find them quickly, and make sure all your contact information is up to date. You will also achieve a much better response if you provide staff emails instead of generic anonymous ones such as info@companyname.com.
- Communicate your affiliations, credentials, awards and accomplishments. This builds your reputation and demonstrates transparency.
- Post testimonials on your website. Make sure they are true, and ask permission to use the client’s full name and job title. These real-world endorsements provide social proof to potential customers. They’re proven to build an initial level of trust and encourage people to do business with you. Don’t be shy about asking for them from your current clients and colleagues.
Becoming known for trustworthy service comes from continually meeting and exceeding the communication expectations of your audience.
Other Trust-Building Tips:
- Be quick in responding to questions or requests. Check email, voicemail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn daily and be helpful and positive when responding.
- Aim for consistency across all communication platforms in terms of appearance, messaging, accuracy, and timeliness of information.
- Invest some time in blogging and it will really pay off. It’s a great way to establish yourself as authoritative and trustworthy – and support your position as an expert in your field.
- Demonstrate your expertise and set expectations in all your material: brochures, ads, news releases and social media, too.
- What is your philosophy? If you and your team are enthusiastic about your work and customers, share that through multiple channels. It becomes infectious.
The most valuable business relationships you develop will be the result of trust built over time and achieved through consistent, honest, and valuable communications.
If this seems like extra work, remind yourself that trust is critically important to your success. People naturally choose to do business with, and recommend, other people they like and trust. Trust me: it’s worth your time.
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I have the pleasure and privilege of co-writing a regular quarterly communications column in The Scrivener, published by BC Notaries, along with Mark Smiciklas. Mark is my go-to for digital and social media strategy and support. He’s a Digital Strategist and President of Intersection Consulting, a Vancouver-based marketing agency that helps individuals and organizations leverage Web 2.0 to connect with audiences and achieve business objectives. This column appears in the Spring edition.