Building Trust Results in Customer Loyalty
Building Trust Results in Customer Loyalty
What is Trust?
Trust is the glue that holds the business relationship together and is expressed repeatedly in your actions. This includes what you do and do not do. Simple things are key, such as returning phone calls immediately and being consistent in your words and actions. In this way, trust is an absolutely essential part of sales, as well as business in general. If trust is not present, customers will not buy.
Trust is an Investment
Building trust is not cheap. It is an investment in your service to customers. This means hiring good people and providing them with ongoing training, offering money back guarantees, and going out of your way to meet customer needs better. The catch is that these investments pay off handsomely in improved profits and a strong referral base. Remember, word-of-mouth marketing is the best way to generate new sales. When trust is high, customers go out of their way to tell others about your business.
Eliminate Customer Sacrifices
What do your customers have to put up with to do business with you? These are barriers to success. Look at the companies you are passionate about. How easy is it do to business with those organizations? Remove customer sacrifices and build loyal clients.
Competence and Credibility
Trust is built by showing competence and credibility. Competence is getting the job done right, better than the competitors. It is expressed through knowledge of the client’s needs, your product/service and the ability to work with others. Credibility is your character, integrity and honesty. Only say what you really mean and be a person of integrity. Show genuine concern for the customer through giving and unselfish behavior. The focus is on the customer and his or her needs.
Customers are Honest When Trust is Present
Don’t expect full honesty from people until trust is present. This is why objections really come from a lack of trust. Customers fear that you will take advantage of them if they share their shortcomings with you. When a customer trusts you, they are more inclined to tell you how to meet their needs specifically.
How to Build Trust
Trust is built through frequent interactions. These interactions are your opportunity to build trust. In fact, any interaction you have with customers has an impact on trust. Communication is about trust, not technique. When trust is high, it is effortless; when low, it is a huge burden. Listening builds trust because it shows how much you value the customer. It meets a deep psychological need to be respected as a person. Listening is the single most important thing you can do to build trust. Following are additional ways to build trust:
Trust customers to do the right thing
Return all phone calls immediately
Send thank-you notes
Be extremely organized and dependable
Do something different and special, be creative
Handle complaints promptly with empathy and honesty
Offer great customer service
Show sincere appreciation
Understand your customers
Become a valuable resource to the client
Create solutions that add value to customers
Partner with the customer
Create a customer, not a sale
Do not over-promise and do what you say you will do
Do something that is not expected
Always give more than expected
Do these things without any expectation of a return from the customer
Always act in the best interest of your customers. Selling -- in fact, doing business -- is the process of building a trusting relationship with people. This is not a passing trend or sales technique, but a way of life. Make it your challenge to find at least three ways to build trust with customers this week.
Building Trust Results in Customer Loyalty - To learn more about this author, visit Thomas Young's Website.
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Dr. Chris Hart recently spoke at the Better Business Bureau’s Excellence in Customer Service Award Dinner. Dr. Hart gave an excellent presentation that clearly expressed how building trust results in customer loyalty, which results in more profitable customers and a greater chance for marketing and sales success. Most businesses struggle because trust is not yet present in a loyal customer base. Their customers range from merely satisfied to unhappy. Your challenge is to move people into the loyal customer category. This means building trust.
What is Trust?
Trust is the glue that holds the business relationship together and is expressed repeatedly in your actions. This includes what you do and do not do. Simple things are key, such as returning phone calls immediately and being consistent in your words and actions. In this way, trust is an absolutely essential part of sales, as well as business in general. If trust is not present, customers will not buy.
Trust is an Investment
Building trust is not cheap. It is an investment in your service to customers. This means hiring good people and providing them with ongoing training, offering money back guarantees, and going out of your way to meet customer needs better. The catch is that these investments pay off handsomely in improved profits and a strong referral base. Remember, word-of-mouth marketing is the best way to generate new sales. When trust is high, customers go out of their way to tell others about your business.
Eliminate Customer Sacrifices
What do your customers have to put up with to do business with you? These are barriers to success. Look at the companies you are passionate about. How easy is it do to business with those organizations? Remove customer sacrifices and build loyal clients.
Competence and Credibility
Trust is built by showing competence and credibility. Competence is getting the job done right, better than the competitors. It is expressed through knowledge of the client’s needs, your product/service and the ability to work with others. Credibility is your character, integrity and honesty. Only say what you really mean and be a person of integrity. Show genuine concern for the customer through giving and unselfish behavior. The focus is on the customer and his or her needs.
Customers are Honest When Trust is Present
Don’t expect full honesty from people until trust is present. This is why objections really come from a lack of trust. Customers fear that you will take advantage of them if they share their shortcomings with you. When a customer trusts you, they are more inclined to tell you how to meet their needs specifically.
How to Build Trust
Trust is built through frequent interactions. These interactions are your opportunity to build trust. In fact, any interaction you have with customers has an impact on trust. Communication is about trust, not technique. When trust is high, it is effortless; when low, it is a huge burden. Listening builds trust because it shows how much you value the customer. It meets a deep psychological need to be respected as a person. Listening is the single most important thing you can do to build trust. Following are additional ways to build trust:
Trust customers to do the right thing
Return all phone calls immediately
Send thank-you notes
Be extremely organized and dependable
Do something different and special, be creative
Handle complaints promptly with empathy and honesty
Offer great customer service
Show sincere appreciation
Understand your customers
Become a valuable resource to the client
Create solutions that add value to customers
Partner with the customer
Create a customer, not a sale
Do not over-promise and do what you say you will do
Do something that is not expected
Always give more than expected
Do these things without any expectation of a return from the customer
Always act in the best interest of your customers. Selling -- in fact, doing business -- is the process of building a trusting relationship with people. This is not a passing trend or sales technique, but a way of life. Make it your challenge to find at least three ways to build trust with customers this week.
Building Trust Results in Customer Loyalty - To learn more about this author, visit Thomas Young's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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